Seize the Chance
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Stephanie was too late. She waited for her chance and it got by her too fast. She'd wanted Chris, but someone else got to him first...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The characters and real people don't belong to me. The characters belong to WWE and the real people own themselves. There is mild swearing in this story and maybe some adult situations later on.

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**A/N: So I was talking with Jodi (StephanieIrvine) about her story "Photograph" (go read it) and I said it made me want to write, so here it is. I guess I'm throwing my hat in the ring with a story about the picture between Chris and K squared. It's not really about them or the picture per se, it's totally different. Anyways, let me know what you think, I was really undecided on whether to post this so let me know if you want it continued, I hope you enjoy. Please leave a review. :)

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She should've acted faster.

She should've leapt as soon as she heard, but she hadn't. She'd been trying to wait for the right time, whenever that was. She was all about timing. She wanted things to be perfect and right and she really believed they would be, but how could she have known that other people would leap at the chance too? Of course she'd known deep down that Chris was an extremely handsome man, but she figured he'd need time, that grieving period at the end of a serious relationship. She'd needed it when she'd divorced Paul. Hell, she still needed it and they'd been divorced for seven months already. It didn't help that her father was forcing her into a storyline with him.

She still wasn't completely over it, mostly over it, sure, but completely over it, not so much. It didn't help that she had two children with Paul, two children they shared custody with. There was another obstacle she'd had to think about, what was best for her daughters? Murphy wouldn't know any better. They'd separated before she was born so she would never know her parents together and that was for the best. She and Paul had been on steady decline since they'd become a couple. It had started off well and then every year she would assess and somehow they'd decline and decline. She didn't want to believe that her children were a way to save her marriage, but they had been. It wasn't them that failed though, it was her and Paul that failed.

She didn't think she wanted to jump into the world of dating so soon. It wasn't _too_ long ago that she'd been dating around, but after a divorce, it just felt different. You had different values and different needs. Plus she had two very young daughters to worry about and not a lot of men would want to date her with two little girls in tow. Some men surely would, but now she had to preface every encounter with an "I have two daughters under the age of three." That could get awkward.

She'd always had a thing for Chris Irvine. It was difficult not to when they worked so closely together for so long. She'd often thought they had moments, moments they didn't let themselves give in to. Sometimes they would finish a scene and when they were commending each other for a job well done, they'd just smile and it was like a secret smile, holding in something for the future. They'd never given in, but she could tell, she could just _feel_ that sometimes they wanted to. Sometimes their hands would reach out just the tiniest bit, but then would snap back and get back where it belonged at her side. His hand wasn't hers to hold.

They were friends, she'd at least say that. He was kind enough to include her in the acknowledgement part of his book and she had been the one to bring him back. It hadn't taken much of a stretch either, she'd asked him, told him they wanted him and while he wasn't exactly jumping at her for the chance he hadn't turned her down off the bat either. He'd taken a couple of days and agreed. Her father had been most pleased by that and she felt like she'd accomplished something. Plus, it allowed her to go out to dinner with him and he had been as much of a gentleman as she figured he would be.

Still, nothing could ever come of it because she was married and he was married and they ascribed to the rules. She had seen what adultery did to her father and she didn't want to travel that road. So she'd just figured never was the answer to her and Chris. It wasn't that she thought they were soulmates, but she wondered. Whenever they touched in a scene or talked backstage or laughed together, she wondered. Wondering could only go so far though, but then she'd heard he was getting a divorce and it piqued her interest. Maybe her and Chris _could_ actually be an actuality and that excited her. Surely he'd think of her when he was single, maybe for just a moment that would turn into moments that would turn into him asking her to dinner or coffee or just to catering, she'd take it.

Then one night she was on the internet and decided to see what the gossips were saying today. She'd read something about how Vince had been the one to instigate this storyline with her and Paul and it was accurate so she wanted to see what other things people could dig up. It had to be common knowledge that she and Paul were divorced, but she wondered if anyone was saying they were getting back together. She'd laugh at those rumors if people were saying them.

She was just idly surfing when she saw a headline about Chris and Kelly Kelly, or Barbie as her real name went. They were out partying? Well, that wasn't unusual. She'd seen a clip of Chris karaoking with a bunch of wrestlers and divas a couple weeks back. She looked at them and they didn't seem out of the ordinary. She wished later she hadn't pried more, but she had and that's when she saw the picture of them kissing. Her heart dropped to her stomach and if she could vomit, she would, but she was more speechless than anything.

It wasn't like he was Stephanie's, he wasn't, but realizing that her chance had passed was a hard lesson to learn indeed. She should've swooped in when she had the chance and now she was stuck here looking at this picture and he was so obviously with Barbie and what chance did she stand? It was clear now that Chris had a type, blonde, petite, thin, very, very thin. Stephanie was brunette, tall, and she was thin, but not very. She'd had a difficult time losing the weight from Murphy and she was just getting to the place where she felt comfortable in her own skin again. How could she compete with Barbie? The girl was picture perfect.

There was a blown shot at something she'd wanted for a while. Oh well, time to move on and hope that she could find someone else. The sad thing was she never had Chris in the first place. If she'd just acted on instinct, impulse, but Stephanie wasn't an impulsive person and she'd wanted the perfect moment, but now it seemed Chris was off having the perfect moment with Barbie instead of her. At least he got to be happy. Murphy started crying and Stephanie sighed and got up, ready to face another day of being a single mother.

She was at the show later that evening, working, doing her job, all those good things that came with being the boss. She was subdued tonight. Her alliance (she wasn't going to call it a marriage) with Paul was really ramping up tonight. That meant that Paul would try and be all over her and she would try to get him away from her. He hadn't taken the divorce as well as she had and was still clinging, God how he was clinging.

"Hey, Steph."

Stephanie looked up from her desk and saw that Chris, of all people, had walked in the door. She gave him a smile. He was still her friend after all, "Hey, Chris, what can I do for you?"

"I was told you had the script for tonight, I know what I'm saying, I went over it with one of the writers, I just forgot how much time I get with it," Chris said, taking a seat across from her.

"Oh, I don't have the script right here, let me look for it, hold on a second," she said, fishing through her papers.

"How are the girls?" Chris asked.

"They're good, very good, Murphy's a handful, but I think I'm doing okay."

"Is it hard with just you most of the time?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I'm handling it. How are you doing with yours?"

"When they come over it's hard because Chey and Sierra are rambunctious, I'm sure you have the same thing with Aurora," Chris said, since Aurora was the same age as his twins. "Ash is really starting to get the hang of helping out. He's great with them."

"It must be great to have that extra set of helper hands," Stephanie replied. "Aurora tries to help sometimes, but she's a little bit flighty, which I think is typical for a three-year-old."

"Definitely typical," Chris chuckled. "Cheyenne thinks she's a different animal every day and you have to remember what animal she is that day or else she gets really angry. So where are your girls right now?"

"My mom's been helping me out with taking care of them. When I was with Paul, he liked having a nanny at all times and he talked me into one, but I never really wanted my kids raised by a nanny, you know, I'd rather raise them myself. I think he still has one when they're with him, or at the very least some kind of babysitter/nanny type thing, but I want to be as hands-on as possible so my mom has been helping with them."

"That's really nice of her, she's a busy lady."

"I know, but she'd do anything for her grandkids."

"They are adorable though. I saw Aurora running around with you earlier."

Stephanie thought back to earlier. She'd been in the parking area just outside and Aurora had desperately needed to stretch her legs after being in their car for such a long time. Stephanie had let her run around until she was tired. She'd even played a game of catch with the girl. Then Paul had come to spend some time with her and she had run to her daddy and left with him, leaving Stephanie sunning on the steps with Murphy.

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Well, she was kind of near the entrance," he laughed.

"I didn't see you."

"I snuck inside," he winked and there was that thing again, that moment, that little twinge where she could feel something more, but there couldn't be anything more right now. He was in a relationship and she was not keen on cheating, even if it was against someone like Barbie Blank.

"You should say hi next time, what, are you afraid of me?" she asked good-naturedly.

"Afraid of you, Stephanie McMahon? Why would I be afraid of _you_?" he joked.

"Because I'm your boss," she told him with a grin.

"Yeah, but you're the nice boss, not like your dad, he's the asshole. You're the one people go to when they want to talk to someone nice."

"You think I'm nice?"

"Stephanie, we're friends, at some point I was probably going to glean onto the fact that you're a nice person."

Friends, what a stupid, strange word. It was so broad sometimes. Yes, sometimes people qualified it with good or best, but still, what about everyone else that wasn't a good or a best friend? They were just friends of varying degrees, some jumping in and out of your life at random, some staying. But there was just no real way to define a friend because every friend was different, every one was a varying degree. And what was Chris? Was he good or best? She didn't know, maybe neither, maybe he was barely a friend, maybe he was bordering on acquaintance. She didn't want him as a friend though, but that's where they were stuck.

"Yeah, we're friends," she told him.

"Wow, that didn't sound convincing at all," he said, "we _are_ friends, right?"

"Of course, of course," she told him. "We definitely are friends."

"Good," he told her, "because I'd hate to lose you as a friend, think of all the power you could get me if I really wanted some."

"Very funny," she told him. "Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot why you came in here." She grabbed the script. "Okay, you've got 14 minutes in your segment with Flair tonight. That should be a good one."

"Yeah, I'm going for authentic when I kick his ass."

"Good luck."

"You too, I heard you're going to take a DDT tonight," Chris told her. "You sure you're up for that?"

"When am I ever up for taking a move, but I can handle myself, don't worry," Stephanie told him. "Thanks for asking though."

"Well, I don't want you to get hurt or anything," Chris said. "Isn't Randy going to kiss you too?"

"Yeah, when I'm out from the DDT. Paul will struggle against the ropes and be forced to watch and I'll just lie there while he kisses me. We think that'll make it really despicable on Randy's part and we're hoping it gets him major heat."

"Wow, kissing a guy's wife while she lays unconscious and he has to watch, how could that _not_ get heat?"

"That's what we're thinking, you should teach him how to get real heat. You're the one getting the most heat around here," she complimented him.

"Thanks, I'm doing the best I can with what I've got."

"I'm really sorry about this storyline, we thought it'd be better and--"

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "You're doing the best you can. I know stuff fell through with the storyline and that's not your fault so I can't blame you for trying to squeeze me in somewhere."

"Thanks," she said, though why she said that, she didn't know.

"Well, thanks for checking for me and good luck with your thing later tonight," he said. "So after Randy kisses you, how many guys is that from the company that have kissed you on TV? Because I'm thinking it's like six or something because that's enough for me to break out a little saying I had."

"Don't you dare," she giggled.

"Oh well, maybe I'll recommend Randy use it," Chris told him, grinning. "I'll see you around, Steph."

"Bye, Chris."

She looked after him longingly. There didn't seem to be any spark of interest from his side and she sighed. Why should she have expected there to be? He had a girlfriend who made him happy so she should be happy for him. Surely she would find someone when the time was right. If it wasn't meant to be with Chris, it was meant to be with someone else and it was still such a short amount of time after her divorce maybe she should wait awhile until she really started dating again. She _should_ wait until Murphy was older, that way they were more settled than they were now. Maybe when Murphy turned a year old.

She got up and wanted to go to the gorilla so she could watch the show from there. She liked to be on top of things. Her father was there tonight, but he had to stay off camera since he was still supposed to be injured, as was Shane. She was only scheduled to come on later that night, but she had other things to do. She walked down the hallway and thought about going to meet with Randy so they could really stage how things would go when she saw Chris again.

This time he wasn't alone. Barbie was with him. It always felt like she was insulting her when she called her Barbie, but that was her name and what she preferred to be called. She kind of looked like Barbie though so the comparison was apt. They were hugging right now and she turned away, unable to look at them for any extended amount of time. He was never hers, she shouldn't let it affect her, but still, she couldn't help but let it affect her because taken or not, she had a crush on Chris, or more than a crush, she didn't feel like exploring her feelings right now.

"Steph?"

"Paul," Stephanie said with a sigh.

"Hey, I was hoping we could talk about what we're going to do later."

"Yeah, sure," she said, though she didn't want to talk about it.

"I was also hoping we could talk about next week…maybe we could go out with the girls?"

"Paul, I don't want to do that," Stephanie told him. "I know what you're trying to do and I think it's really noble of you to want to try again for the girls, but we did try again and we both agreed that it just wasn't working. I think we need to stick to that. The girls are already confused enough. If they see us together with them, well, Aurora's going to start thinking things."

"I know you don't want to try, but I was thinking about it again and I just thought that maybe we could just try one more time."

"And what happens when it doesn't work out again? We go our separate ways, Rora and Murphy get used to it, then we try one more time. We're going to get into this weird cycle and I don't want that for them, please, I just want to do our jobs and get it over with. I don't want to confuse our daughters. We have issues, Paul, we always have. I don't want to rehash them."

"You're right," he said, looking down. "I don't know, it just seems like we gave up."

"We didn't give up," she said. "We did try, but it just wasn't going to work."

"Yeah," he said, but she wasn't sure he actually believed that or would ever believe that. They were just two very different people who had gotten married and it worked for a while, but it wasn't going to last forever and their problems weren't going to be resolved, that was just the long and short of it.

"Well, I guess I'll go."

"Didn't you want to talk about later."

"I'll find you later, we have time," he said and it confirmed that he just wanted to try and ask for another chance. She hoped that this time he got what she was saying and would leave the issue alone. They could both love their daughters, but they weren't right for each other.

She turned back around to where Chris and Barbie had been, but they weren't there anymore. Her mind conjured up quickies in locker rooms. Why had Chris been elevated to his own locker room? She was regretting that decision right now. She should put him back into the communal locker room or was that too harsh? Yes, that was probably too harsh. Like she'd repeated to herself ad nauseum, they had never been together so she had no right to judge. She did have a right to be jealous though.

She went to the gorilla and sat down, intending to watch the show. Chris was up first so she could ogle him for a bit. While she had loved him in the vinyl pants he used to wear, she thought he looked exquisite in the suits he wore now. She'd actually suggested that change for his character and he had taken it to heart and she was glad she had thought of it because there was something so hot about him in those suits. He started backstage and when he passed her, he gave her a smile since he wasn't on camera at that exact moment.

Then he went out there and did his promo to perfection. There were few guys that had Chris's skill and even those that could were not as good as him. What was he doing with someone like Barbie? She was young, naïve, she didn't have any life experience. She just had a stupid smile and perky boobs and blonde hair that was probably bleached, she'd never seen pictures of Barbie as a kid, she didn't know. God, she was jealous of a 22 year old and she thought she was so far past petty jealousies.

While Chris was out there, one of the assistants had brought a wet towel out for him and Flair to wipe themselves off from the blood. Chris came back first since he had done the beating. Stephanie handed him the towel and he wiped off his hands and sat next to her. She wasn't expecting that. She blushed a little and was thankful for the darkness surrounding them. They were only illuminated by the desk light and the monitor in front of them. But what was she doing blushing in front of him like a little girl? She was a grown woman with children and a failed marriage; there was nothing she should be blushing about.

"I just wanted to see if Flair was okay," Chris said. "I don't want to bother you while you're working."

"You're not," she said, "not at all."

"Thanks," Chris said. "I think I got him good, like legit. I didn't mean to, but well, I just want to make sure he's okay."

"That's really great of you."

"You have to look out for people around here," he joked, bumping shoulders with her. Flair was helped back a moment later and Chris stood up. "Ric, are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, Chris, thanks," Flair said as Chris handed him the other towel. "I'm just going to see the trainer and get the cut bandaged up."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Chris asked, genuinely concerned that he'd hurt Flair.

"No, I'll be fine, Chris," Flair said, patting him on the arm with his free hand, "You did a great job out there."

"Thanks," Chris said, pleased by the reaction. Flair walked off and Chris sat down slowly again. "I feel really bad if I did hurt him. I might have gotten carried away…great, now I feel like an asshole."

"You're not," Stephanie said, wondering how to comfort him. He looked honestly distraught and she knew he knew that sometimes people got injured, but Flair wasn't an active wrestler and Chris must be feeling kind of bad about that fact, despite the fact that this was a planned segment. She dared to reach out and rub his arm a little. He looked at her gratefully. "He'll be fine. You looked awesome out there and you should be proud of yourself for the heat you're getting."

"I'm trying."

"You're doing great," she said. Stephanie was about to speak when Barbie came up.

"Chris, I've been looking for you," she said and Stephanie slowly took her hand off Chris's arm. She didn't want his girlfriend to get the wrong idea.

"Oh hey, Barb," Chris said and Stephanie cringed. He called her Barb. "What's up?"

"I was looking everywhere for you because I wanted to tell you what a great job you did out there. I'm like so proud."

"Cool, thanks," he told her.

"Hey, Stephanie," Barbie said sweetly. Stephanie felt the urge to smack her for stealing the guy Stephanie wanted.

"Hey," Stephanie said, but it was a strained hello.

"Well, I've got to go, Melina wanted to grab something to eat, she feels like fast food so we're going on a fast food run," Barbie giggled. "You want anything, Chris?"

"No thanks, I ate," he told her.

"Stephanie?" Barbie asked politely.

"No thanks, but thanks for asking."

"Okay, bye," she waved and Stephanie was surprised the young woman hadn't leaned over and slobbered her mouth all over Chris's. She thought they were one for public displays of affection seeing as how they had no problem posing for pictures with their lips smacked together like gross frogs or something. She'd been watching too many cartoons with her daughter.

"She's nice," Stephanie said, making idle chit-chat with Chris.

"Yeah, she really is," Chris told Stephanie.

"She's really improving in the ring too, I have to commend her for that," Stephanie said, trying to be nice. "She's young so she's got time."

"You really think she's getting better?" Chris asked, now turning fully to Stephanie.

"Yeah, I do, she's improving leaps and bounds."

"She _is_ getting pretty awesome. You should turn her heel and put her with me," Chris told her with a laugh. "But she's really popular so I don't think she could be a heel."

"That's true, it's kind of hard once you reach a certain point, I mean, not impossible, look at Trish when she was with Jay," Stephanie pointed out. "I mean, if you wanted me to work something out, maybe we could…"

She just wanted him to be happy. They'd never been together so she just wanted him to be happy.

"Nah, she's doing really well right now so I wouldn't want to bring her over to heeldom," Chris told her. "Now you on the other hand, what is with you being a face? It doesn't suit you at all."

"Are you saying that I should turn heel?"

"I absolutely think you should, are you? Is that where the storyline is going with you and Randy?"

"You'll have to wait and see."

"Hopefully it'll go better than ours did."

"Well, Paul was the reason behind that."

"I know, I thought it could've been fun, pretending like all the time we hated each other we were really having sex. That could've been such a storyline, talk about build-up. I think I would've knocked that out of the park."

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely," he told her. "I think it would've been fun."

She thought so too…now she was stuck with Randy and Paul and she wanted neither. Randy was married and Paul was…Paul.

And neither one was Chris.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews for this one! I was really hesitant to post it, but I'm glad so many people liked it. I hope you continue to like it and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated. :)

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Stephanie liked this arena. She knew it was a silly thought to run through her head this early in the morning, but she had not had enough coffee yet to think coherently. There was a little park just beyond the parking lot, across the street really, and it was so convenient to have somewhere for Aurora to run around. The little girl was rambunctious enough as it was, but being cooped up all the time made her even worse. She got stir-crazy very easily so Stephanie constantly had to come up with ways to keep the little girl occupied.

There was a small play structure and Aurora was climbing on it while Stephanie sat nearby. Murphy was on her lap. The little girl was standing, being supported by Stephanie, and bouncing up and down on her little legs. Stephanie leaned her chin on Murphy's shoulder and watched her older daughter. She liked these moments when she could get away from the stress of her work and just focus on something that didn't stress her out and that something was her daughters.

"Mommy, watch me!" Aurora yelled from the top of the slide. Stephanie shifted Murphy in her arms and walked over to the slide, standing near the bottom as Aurora sat at the top. Aurora pushed herself off and Stephanie made a surprised face.

"Wow, you're really good at that," Stephanie commented as Aurora jumped up from the bottom and clapped her hands. "Are you going to go again?"

"Yup!" Aurora yelled enthusiastically before she ran to the other side to climb up so she could go down the slide once again. Stephanie looked at Murphy and made a funny face. Murphy giggled and they went to sit on the bench again as Aurora pushed herself down again, giggling the entire time.

"Hey."

Stephanie looked to her left and was surprised to see Chris. She was even more surprised to see two little girls each holding one of his hands. Stephanie looked back up at him and smiled, nearly involuntarily. She thought this little park could be her safe haven from work, but she was obviously wrong and of all people who had to show up, it was the one she was most apprehensive about seeing.

"Hey yourself," Stephanie said, trying to act normally around him. The slight drop in her stomach was dutifully ignored, but the pebble was sinking and it would sit there for a while.

"I saw this place when I was driving in," he said. "I thought it could be fun."

"Oh yeah, Rora's having a great time," Stephanie responded, nodding towards her daughter, who was jogging to the top of the slide again.

Chris looked over at her and smiled, then knelt down to his own little girls, "Hey, so you guys can go play for a while, that girl's name is Aurora, she's just your age and I bet you can all have fun together, right?"

"Right," Cheyenne and Sierra said in unison before Chris let go of their hands and let them run to play.

Chris took a seat next to Stephanie and she could almost feel the heat coming from his body. "I think they'll all get along, right?"

"Aurora's very personable," Stephanie answered and the evidence was already in front of her as Aurora went up to the other girls and told them all about the slide. She started off towards it again, urging the twins to follow her. "Where's Ash?"

"He stayed with his mom. It's harder for him to travel with me because he's in school now and everything. Chey and Sierra aren't so we decided it'd be great if maybe they traveled with me every once in a while and that way they get to see me more often."

"That sounds like a nice plan."

"It is, it means I get to be around them more," he said. "So you thought to bring Aurora out here as well."

"Yeah, she's antsy, like I mentioned," Stephanie said, "if she plays, she can tire herself out."

"I know that's what I'm hoping for," Chris chuckled. He looked over and caught Murphy staring intently at him. "Hey, I don't believe we've met, I'm Chris."

Chris stuck his hand out to Murphy. She looked down at it for a moment before, looking at her mommy. Stephanie just shrugged, amused by the look on Murphy's face. Murphy looked back down at Chris's hand and thinking that he was playing a game, she slapped her small hand on top of it and giggled, looking at her mommy for approval. Stephanie was giggling and she extended Murphy's hand into Chris's.

"That's Chris," Stephanie said as she helped Murphy shake Chris's hand.

"You're very cute," Chris told her sweetly.

She knew Chris had kids of his own, they were right there, but she still marveled at the ease of which he conversed and interacted with him. It might help that a lot of the time Chris was a big kid himself, but she found it charming. It didn't help to ease this crush on him though. If she thought he was amazing before, seeing him around her kids was downright magical. God, now Murphy was even reaching her hands towards him, also enchanted by that smile. How many girls' hearts had it melted?

"May I?" Chris asked, looking to Stephanie.

"Yeah, of course," she said, handing Murphy over to Chris.

"Hey, you," Chris said, taking her from Stephanie and lifting Murphy over his head, wiggling her around. Murphy was laughing and have a great time with her new friend. "You are adorable. She's adorable, Steph."

"Thanks," she said. She wasn't pathetic enough to pretend this was like a date or something, but she was pathetic enough to want this to be a date.

"It feels like it's been forever since the girls were babies and they were really small when they were babies so it's been a long, long time since I've held a completely on schedule kid. Almost makes me want another one," he said, making funny faces at Murphy.

Why did he have to say things like that? He was making it awfully difficult for her _not_ to pretend this was a date. He was not hers though. He was with Barbie and that's just how it was. It wasn't like she was the type of girl who just stole other guys from women. If Chris wanted to be with Barbie, he wanted to be with Barbie. Stephanie was a wonderful, attractive person and men would fall all over her. She didn't even _need_ a man to validate her life. It just would've been a nice luxury and she could do without luxury for a while.

"I think I might steal your kid."

"Then I think I might call the cops," she joked.

"Okay, okay, I won't kidnap her but damn, that is some face," Chris said. "She looks just like you. So does Aurora actually, probably better, huh?"

"Better than what?" she asked, not understanding what he was getting at.

"Better that they look like you than they look like Paul. Nothing against the guy, but let's face it, you had the looks in that relationship."

Damn it, was she blushing? She turned away and looked at her daughter and Chris's daughters playing together. They seemed to be engaged in some form of tag because they were all chasing each other and acting like they had been friends for years. Kids had it so easy sometimes. There was no complicated relationship. There was just innocence and fun and nothing to think about or worry about or anything. She didn't usually wish to go back to her childhood but with these complicated feelings she wished it dearly. It must be wonderful to just run around without anything to fret over, must be so liberating.

"Thanks," she sputtered.

"Steph, are you blushing?" he laughed. "You know you're beautiful."

"Never hurts to hear," she told him.

"You should hear it all the time."

Why was he torturing her with these words? They seemed to make little cuts in her skin. "You flatter me too much."

"Or not enough," he winked at her. She wanted to yell at him to stop this because it was hurting her. She shouldn't feel hurt by his kind words, but they hurt just the same. He was a wonderful man and knowing she had missed her chance was enough to hurt, but now this, to hear him say these things, to think they could be sitting here with his arm over her shoulder as they watched their kids get to know each other…stop!

"You're way too nice."

Chris let Murphy sit in his lap. "Our kids should get together more often. If the girls are with me, I think it'd be nice for them to have someone their own age to hang out with. They seem to be getting along."

"I'd say so." Stephanie turned her head to look at him again and saw blonde and boobs jogging over. She sighed and looked at Chris, "Barbie's coming over."

"Oh," Chris said, looking over at her as she came over. "Hey, Barb."

"Hey, I saw you over here and I thought I'd see what you were up to," Barbie said as she sat down next to Chris. He scooted over closer to Stephanie to make room for Barbie. Stephanie could feel his thigh touching hers and she sighed as Barbie looked at Murphy. "Oh my God, Stephanie, she is so adorable! Oh my God, hello, baby."

"Her name is Murphy," Stephanie said and tried to keep the snide tone out of her voice.

"Then hello Murphy," Barbie cooed. "So where are your girls?"

Stephanie wanted to ask her where she thought those giggles were coming from, but she refrained. "They're over there," Chris explained nicely. "Do you want to meet them?"

"I'd love to meet them," Barbie said, clapping her hand excitedly. That was the exact thing Murphy did, Stephanie observed meanly. She couldn't believe she was going to have to witness the first meeting between Chris's kids and the new girlfriend. Talk about a slap to the face.

"Cheyenne, Sierra, come over here a second!" Chris called for them. The two girls ran over and Aurora followed because now it was no fun playing with just herself when she'd had people to play with that were her age. Cheyenne and Sierra stood in front of him and he grabbed their hands. "There's someone I want you to meet, this is Daddy's friend, Barbie."

Friend. There was that word again. Except this time, it was meant to mask what she really was. The girls were still at an age when you could introduce a new boyfriend or girlfriend as the "special friend." They were too young to realize there was more to this little friendship than what met the eye. Ahh, to be young again.

One of them, Stephanie couldn't really tell yet, looked confused and then said, "Daddy, like doll?"

Chris laughed, "Yeah, Chey, like the Barbie doll."

"Oh," Cheyenne said in awe. Stephanie made a mental note that Cheyenne was the one with the longer hair. She wondered if Barbie was trying to make the same connection. "Hi," Cheyenne said shyly.

"Hi," Barbie said in that bubbly voice of hers. She shook Cheyenne's hand and then Sierra's. "I've heard so much about you guys from your daddy, he loves you a whole lot."

"Okay," Sierra said, looking at this woman who seemed to know her.

"Do you mind if I play with you guys?" Barbie asked.

"Okay," Cheyenne said, sounding nearly identical to her sister.

"Cool," Barbie said, walking over to the playground.

"Aurora, why don't we go inside now, I've got some work to do," Stephanie said. She didn't need to watch any more of this. She knew Chris wasn't trying to deliberately hurt her, but it was hurting her all the same.

"Mommy, I wanna play," Aurora whined.

"You know, I can watch her if you want, Steph," Chris interjected. "It wouldn't be a problem. I don't really have anything to do for a while. Plus, if you have work to be done, how helpful is it going to be having two little girls around. In fact, I could babysit Murphy too if you wanted."

"You'd do that for me?" she asked, somewhat touched.

"Of course," he nodded. "Look, Aurora is already trying to sneak back over so she could play with my girls."

Stephanie looked at her daughter and yes, Aurora was slowly starting to walk back towards the playground. Murphy looked happy to play with the buttons on Chris's shirt. Her infant daughter was getting farther with Chris than she'd ever gotten, how depressing was that? "Uh yeah, sure, that'd be actually really great, I appreciate it, Chris."

"Don't mention it, I'm happy to help," he said, shifting Murphy in his arms. "When we're done here, I'll just return them."

"Thanks," she said again, inwardly cursing his niceness. "I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, you will, don't worry, won't run off with them, I have my fair share of kids already," Chris said. Stephanie started to walk away. "Hey, Steph, before you go, I was wondering…you know what, never mind."

"No, what were you going to say?" she asked. He shook his head and threw her a smile.

"It's not important."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Once again, thank you for all the awesome reviews, they make me so happy. I love that you all seem to like this story! So here's another chapter and please leave another review and let me know how it's going, thanks! :)

* * *

"_It's not important."_

Stephanie replayed his words in her mind. It seemed like he'd wanted to ask her something, but what? She tried to play it out in her mind. Was she silly for hoping that he was asking her for more than friendship? She felt like a schoolgirl with a silly crush on the popular boy. Or more aptly, like the dorky, studious girl who lusted after the star quarterback, who was conveniently dating the head cheerleader. She'd seen the way the guys backstage ogled Barbie; she wasn't blind. When they saw Stephanie, they probably thought simple things, like, "There goes the boss's frumpy daughter, who couldn't even keep a husband."

Why should Chris think any differently? He could get any woman he wanted and wanting her, well that was silly when he already had someone. He was probably going to ask about having more play-dates between his daughters and her daughter. That's probably why it wasn't important because he'd just ask her when he dropped them off. She'd get over this crush eventually, she just had to. It was just a guy, she reminded herself.

Never-mind the fact that it was an incredible guy who was sweet and charming, funny and handsome, every quality she could ever want in a guy. She'd been so sure when they had their storylines together, she'd been so sure there could be something more, if the timing was right they could've had something. She didn't want to damn her ex-husband and his ex-wife for being in the picture at the time, but she sometimes thought about what might have happened had they not been in the picture. But life is life.

There was a knock on the door and then it opened. Paul never did learn to wait until someone told him to come in before he did. "Hey, Steph."

"Paul," Stephanie nodded as he walked inside.

Paul looked around, "Where are the girls?"

"They're playing with Chris Irvine's girls, he's watching them."

"Chris Irvine?" Paul asked.

"Yes, he brought his girls tonight and they were playing with Aurora and she wanted to stay and play with them and he offered to watch them and watch Murphy so I could get some work done," she explained and she hadn't meant for it to sound as nasty as it did, but she could only imagine what was playing through Paul's mind right now.

A lot of people knew that Paul had no love lost for Chris, but few people knew the reason why. Paul had a habit of being incredibly jealous over her. In fact, it didn't even extend solely to her, it extended to most everything in his life. Paul was a very intense, very focused person. It didn't make him a _bad_ person necessarily, just a very dedicated person, almost addictive. If something was his, then he believed it was _his_ and he had every right to question and prod and know everything that was going on. It had been one point of contention that probably led to their demise.

He'd believe, rather erroneously, that there was something deeper between her and Chris. She'd reassured him time and time again there wasn't, but he'd had his suspicions just the same. It wasn't just with Chris either, he'd thought the same thing with Kurt as well. And it wasn't just Paul either, there'd been times where she believed Paul wasn't over Joanie so it was a whole thing. Red flags as she thought back now, tons of red flags just littered across their entire relationship.

"Both of them?"

"Yeah, he does have experience with children, Paul, he has three of his own," Stephanie pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess. Hopefully you can bring them by later so I can spend some time with them?" he asked.

"Of course, you never really have to ask if you want to spend time with them. They're spending the weekend with you two, right? You said you could take them this weekend."

"Yeah, I can, I'm thinking about going to my parent's place and I know they'd like to see them so I thought we could go down to New Hampshire to visit," Paul nodded.

"Good, I'm glad you can spend time with them, will Nancy be going with you guys?" Stephanie asked, inquiring about the nanny that Paul kept on when he had the girls. It wasn't like he wasn't a good father, he just didn't feel like he could handle both at some time for some reason or another. It was his choice.

"No, my mom is there so she can help out," Paul said. "I know she'd love it if you were there too, though…"

"Paul, when is this going to end, I mean, really?" Stephanie asked.

"I'm sorry, I just hate feeling like a failure at this," he told her. "I was talking with your brother and your dad earlier--"

"Why were you talking to them?" she asked. If he was trying to get on her good side or something she was going to have to let him down again and it was getting to be really tiresome. She didn't want to crush him, but he had to understand that they had no future. You can't fix what's absolutely broken. They were like a dish, even though you had all the pieces, gluing it back together again isn't going to work, the cracks will still be seen and the holes can't be filled again.

"Because we have a storyline together," he said and she was rebuffed by the statement. "But I don't know, it still felt like we were a family. With this storyline, with me and you being us, _us_, Stephanie, it still feels right."

"It's just a storyline," she explained. "It's bound to feel familiar for a while, but we haven't planned this as an ongoing thing, you know that."

"Yeah, I know, but it's here now and…"

"I know you requested it," Stephanie said. "I know it was all your idea. I knew it was going to be like this, I knew it from the moment you suggested it. We're not going to work, Paul, please stop making this so difficult."

She knew getting involved with a wrestler could have these repercussions. Maybe it was a good thing that Chris wasn't interested in her and what she had was only a crush. Being with another wrestler could bring about this scenario again. Now Paul was up from his seat and kneeling next to her chair, reaching out and swiping some of her loose hair from out of her face. She closed her eyes briefly. This was something he used to do to calm her down and now he was using it against her.

"Steph," he whispered.

"Paul, please stop."

"I can't help it. Maybe we made a mistake, I mean, I know what I said and everything, I know I said a divorce was in order, but I think I was wrong."

She shook her head and then looked at him, "You were right, you were right about the entire thing. I'm just…we're not going to work, you were right when you said that."

The door opened just then and both their heads shot to the door. Chris looked surprised as he opened it. He only had Aurora and Murphy with him and Stephanie guessed that Cheyenne and Sierra were with Barbie and she felt a stab of bitterness right in the throat. She was forced to swallow it down though. Chris's eyes widened slightly as he saw Paul's hand still near Stephanie's ear and he started to turn the darkest tinge of red.

"I'm…I'm really sorry," Chris said quickly, "I was just going to return the girls, but you guys seem like you're busy so I will just…um, I'll just take them to catering, yeah, they…juice, I'm sure they like juice, I'm sorry, shouldn't have interrupted."

Chris backed out with Aurora looking at her mommy and daddy and wondering what was going on. Without thinking, Stephanie stood up and Paul nearly fell to the floor from the quickness of it. "Oh my God," she mumbled to herself. Way to give off the wrong impression there.

She booked it out of her office and saw Chris walking with Aurora and Murphy down the hall. She got closer and could hear Aurora asking, "What they do in dere?"

"I don't know," Chris told her. "We'll just get some nice juice."

"I like juice," Aurora told him with a smile.

"Chris!" Stephanie yelled and Chris looked over his shoulder and stopped. Aurora turned too at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Oh, hey, Steph, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you and Paul would be in there together," Chris informed her. "I was just going to bring back the girls because I have the second match of the night and I didn't want them to be wandering around, can Murphy even wander around?"

"No, I don't think so, but what you walked in on--"

"Say no more, I've been through a divorce, remember, I know there are times when you're like, what are we doing and then you get back together or want to or whatever, you know, I mean, I know," he rambled and she found it incredibly endearing. He seemed so embarrassed and she wasn't quite sure she'd ever seen him embarrassed like this and it was just another facet of him that she found herself drawn to. Barbie though, there was Barbie in the way.

"No, no, no, that's not what it was, it was not…I wasn't giving in. He's having second thoughts even though the entire divorce was his idea…I don't know…"

"If that's the case, uh, maybe you should…I don't know, give it another shot if it was him that instigated the divorce, which means you didn't want it…"

"No, I did, I did, I mean, I didn't, but then he said he wanted one and I was like, well, yeah, I think that _is_ the best course of action," and what was she doing laying her entire life out there for him like that. Like he wanted to hear about a complicated marriage when he had just gotten out of his own (probably complicated) marriage. That was probably why he was with Barbie, she seemed very uncomplicated.

"Oh so you didn't…you were trying…"

"To tell him it's really, truly over, that's all," Stephanie said, like she was explaining to her boyfriend that there was nothing going on between her and her ex. Why did she have to act like that around Chris?

"Well, okay," he said and he visibly relaxed, "I just felt weird being in there with you and him and I felt like I was walking in on a private moment."

"Don't worry, we weren't making baby #3 or something," she joked and did she really just say that? Chris was looking even more flustered. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to give you that image."

"Now I'll never be able to close my eyes again," Chris told her good-naturedly.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad."

"Well, the female end of that isn't," he told her and now it was her turn to do the blushing. His compliments were always so…she couldn't quite put the word on it, but they made her insides rearrange themselves in the most peculiar ways, like her stomach dropping to her toes and her liver rising to her throat, and her brain, well she thinks that just disappears altogether.

"Oh," she said, for lack of anything to say since her brain had decided to leave for greener pastures. If she turned around, maybe it would be slithering down the hallway looking for Barbie's body so some part of her could have Chris to herself.

"I've got to go," he told her and he actually sounded regretful, she _knew_ she was regretful the conversation had to end, but it wasn't like she could grab onto his arm and beg him not to go. "I've got the second match and Barbie's got the first match and she's watching my girls."

"Who's going to watch them while you're having your match?" she asked.

"I think Barbie will be okay with that," Chris said, "you know, I didn't really think about that."

"Well, since you watched my girls, I can watch yours."

"You would, but Steph, come on, you're freaking management, you've got a ton of stuff to do."

"Paul wanted to spend some time with the girls, I can certainly handle yours," Stephanie said.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Thank you so much," he said, going in for a hug, but then realizing he had an infant in his arms and then he laughed at himself, "I was about to crush your daughter. I don't think you would want to watch my kids after that."

"Probably not," she said, expecting Barbie to come interrupting their moment _again_, but she was nowhere in sight. Stephanie took the reaching Murphy from Chris's arms and she kissed her head. "Thanks for watching them, they weren't too much trouble, were they?"

"Well, Murphy, that girl's a little troublemaker, I can tell it in her eyes," Chris joked.

"Oh, I know, she's terrible," Stephanie said and she liked moments like this. She wanted more. She kept looking over Chris's shoulder, expecting Barbie. Should she start a countdown to Barbie Interruption 2009. Maybe now she should, ten seconds until that perky blonde would come running up with some non-witty saying.

"They were great," Chris said. "I like your kids, let's trade."

"No fair, you've got three," Stephanie joked. Seven seconds…

"Well, Cheyenne and Sierra are like the same person so it's really only like two," he joked back.

Five seconds, "Well, in that case…"

Three seconds, "You'll take them?"

"I'll think about it."

"Thanks for watching them."

And the blonde would be here…now! Except she wasn't and Stephanie smiled. She wouldn't have to deal with her for a short while. "Just drop them off."

"You're the best," he said and this time he did go in for a hug. He carefully maneuvered and she wrapped her free arm around him and if she just turned her head and he turned his head, but neither one turned their heads and he pulled away and waved and at least there was no Barbie around this time.

"I like him," Aurora said, finishing Stephanie's thoughts for her. "I like Chey and Sierra."

"You do?"

"Uh huh, they nice."

"Cool, so tell me more about them."

"Chris is funny. I like him," she repeated with a nod as she thought about what to tell her mommy next.

"I like him too."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, I'm so glad you guys like this one too. I'm not really pleased with this chapter, but hopefully it didn't turn out as badly as I think.

I also started a new story, "When Nothing Leads to Something," so if you like my stuff, go check it out, hopefully you like it. :)

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"Hey."

Stephanie looked up and saw Chris peeking his head in the doorway, looking around almost cautiously. She wondered why he was looking like that and then figured maybe he thought Paul would be back here again. She had remedied that, she hoped. Paul was not part of her life romantically and she hoped that Chris really didn't get the wrong impression earlier. There was nothing between her and her ex-husband and even though Chris was with Barbie, she didn't want to appear taken...just in case...

"Hey," she said brightly.

"Okay to come in?" he asked.

"Yeah, absolutely," she told him.

He pushed the door open and Cheyenne and Sierra were on the other side, looking a little pensive. They looked like Chris, same smiles, bright with a little bit of sneakiness behind them. Stephanie stood up, not wanting to appear intimidating. She walked over and bent to shake their hands again. Chris pushed them forward a little. Cheyenne looked back at her daddy, not sure what was going on.

"Come on, you two, you know what I just said, you guys are going to stay with Stephanie for a while, you met her earlier, remember?" Chris said, jogging their memories.

"Yeah," Sierra said, glancing back at Chris.

"I promise that you two will have fun, " Stephanie said, trying to ease their worries. "Aurora left a couple of her toys around here so you can play with those." The girls seemed to perk up at that thought, glancing over at the toys. They at least looked fun. "You can go ahead and play."

"Go ahead," Chris told them, pushing them along again. After a moment, the allure of the toys was too much and they went over to investigate, happily finding something to play with. Stephanie straightened up and watched them play for a moment. "Thanks so much for watching them."

"It's never a problem, I like kids," she told him.

"Good thing for that since you have them," he joked, but then he looked down like he thought he was being awkward, but it was her that felt awkward right now. What would Chris have to feel awkward about. They stood there for a good dozen or so seconds of weird silence. She opened her mouth to speak, but he got there first. "And you're sure this isn't a problem."

"Of course not," she told him. "I'm pretty much done with my paperwork so you're free to go, since you have that match and you know, I wouldn't want to be the reason you weren't out there on time, that might get a little weird, you know, you not showing up."

What the hell were these words coming out of her mouth? Why did she get so tongue-tied when she was around him? She'd worked with this man for so long and now that she was single and free and so was he, she suddenly lost the ability to speak? He was still just a person and despite the fact that she still felt _something_ there between them, however old and musty, he was still just a person. She cleared her throat, coughing like she had nothing more to say.

"Yeah, it would get weird, me not showing up."

Were they really just a bunch of 12 year olds at that point. She was being weird and gawky and she felt like she was in junior high and she must be giving off the same vibes to Chris because he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was and she was blowing it big time. He must think her just an absolute fool. No wonder he wanted someone like Barbie, she was probably more...well, less awkward than this.

"Well, you better get going."

"I better," he said, but now it was looking like he didn't want to leave. He was probably rethinking his decision to let her watch his kids.

She felt the need to reassure him that she wasn't such a complete spaz when it came to everything that didn't involve talking to him, "They'll be fine, I promise."

"Yeah, I know, well, going now."

His feet had yet to move though. "We'll be here," she assured him again, like she was going to run off with his kids or something stupid like that.

"Okay," he said and finally his feet seemed to work as he left the three of them alone. Stephanie walked over to the girls and sat down on the floor with them.

"So, hey," Stephanie said. "Are you enjoying the toys?"

"I like this one," Sierra told her, holding up one of Aurora's dolls, "It pretty."

"I know," Stephanie said, easing herself into conversation with the two of them. They were the same age as Aurora so it was very easy to fall into it. The time seemed to pass quickly and before she knew it, Chris was opening the door again coming inside.

Aurora had what Stephanie liked to call a dress-up backpack. Wherever they went, Stephanie would bring a backpack full of dress-up clothes for Aurora to play around with. It was one of her favorite activities and didn't take up too much space as it could all fit in one backpack. Cheyenne had discovered the backpack and wanted to play dress-up. So to add insult to injury, when Chris finally came in, Stephanie was wearing a tiara and a hot pink feather boa draped across her neck.

"That's a nice look for you," Chris said as he closed the door.

Stephanie, startled, turned pinker than even the feather boa she was wearing. She hastily tried to unwrap it, but Sierra was standing behind her and playing with her hair, occasionally making sure the boa was still on her neck. So not only was she looking stupid, she couldn't stop looking stupid because it would upset Sierra if she decided not to play the princess anymore.

"I'm so embarrassed," Stephanie confessed covering her face with her hands even as Sierrra was running her fingers through Stephanie's hair.

"You look good," he said, coming over and sitting next to her on the ground.

"This for you, Daddy," Cheyenne said, putting a pair of way-too-small sunglasses on Chris's head. "You a police."

"I'm a policeman?" Chris asked.

"Uh huh," she said.

"Stephy a pwincess," Sierra informed Chris as she ran her hands over Stephanie's hair. "I do hair. She be pwetty."

"They wanted to play dress-up and I'm the princess and she's my royal servant," Stephanie explained, her face still pink. She could feel her ears heating up and she was so incredibly embarrassed right now she wished she could sink into the floor and become a puddle. Being anywhere but here would be preferable.

"Princess, huh?"

"Yeah," she said weakly.

"You make a beautiful princess," he winked. She smiled a small smile as Sierra pulled on her hair a little. Stephanie winced. "You really don't have to let her do your hair like that."

"I do hair, Daddy!" Sierra said forcefully.

"Okay, okay," Chris gave in, "Well, I guess you do have to let her do your hair then."

"I'm sure she's making it beautiful," Stephanie said as Sierra pulled her hair again. Stephanie tried to put on her best face, but she could tell she was doing a bad job of it because Chris kept looking at her sympathetically. "It's okay, I have to go through this more times than you can count. Murphy's a hair-puller _and_ a hair-eater. Everyday, she sticks my hair in her mouth."

Chris laughed, "I've had that, part of the reason I cut the hair."

"It was not," she teased, finding it more comfortable now that Chris wasn't looking at her like she was the silliest girl on the planet.

"Okay, not really."

"Why did you? Cut it, I mean."

"Just felt time for a change," Chris said. Cheyenne had no placed a small hat precariously on Chris's head, leaning back to survey her styling. "Gotta keep up with the times, right?"

"That's true," she said. "I liked your long hair though. It was just really nice."

"Maybe I'll grow it out just for you," he joked. "I'll tell everyone that Stephanie McMahon ordered me to grow my hair long again. I wonder if the crowds would cheer you. It would bring back Y2J at least so I'm sure some people would love it."

"Nah, it's good now."

Cheyenne stepped in between them. "Okay, Daddy now, here," she said, grabbing Chris's hand and then grabbing Stephanie's hand. "You take this."

"I have to hold hands with her?" Chris asked.

"Uh huh," Cheyenne nodded. "You is save her."

"I saved her because I'm a policeman?"

"Uh huh, they save."

"I thought a prince was supposed to save a princess."

"Mmm, no," Cheyenne said, shaking her head. "You is save."

"Okay, I'm saving her then," Chris said, taking Stephanie's hand in his.

Stephanie would've responded if she wasn't staring down at their hands clasped together. She'd held hands with Chris before, sure, but that was in the ring and this was...she was just sitting there with him, his hand grasping his and she wanted nothing more than to just hold on and never let go. She looked up at Chris, but he was looking amusedly over at Cheyenne, who was discussing how princes didn't need to save princesses.

Why was it so difficult to just tell him her feelings, get them off her chest? She knew he was with Barbie, but it couldn't hurt to just tell him she was attracted to him, could it? It wasn't like it would disrupt the balance of the universe, would it? He would probably be flattered if anything. She could live with flattered as long as he didn't laugh in her face. If he laughed in her face, then she might cry and she didn't want to cry. Maybe telling him would be a bad idea after all.

Besides, she wasn't keen on the idea of breaking people up deliberately, except that would have to imply that Chris actually had feelings for her beside friendship and she wasn't sure that was the case. She'd just enjoy the contact while it lasted and then remember that they were just friends later. Chris was staring at her when she looked back up at him. She couldn't decipher the look in his eyes, but she found herself trying to. There was something in them and she figured out it was amusement; he was amused by this all. She found she was amused by it as well.

"I didn't expect to be rescuing princesses tonight, I would've brought my princess-saving equipment had I known," he joked as Cheyenne and Sierra found something more fascinating to play with and left the two of them to their own conversation. For Stephanie, it was like the chatter of the two little girls started to fade and her ears could only hear Chris's voice.

"What kind of equipment is that?" she asked and then realized how dirty that could sound. Chris was snickering at her. "I mean...you know, you know what I mean!"

He laughed, "I knew what you meant, it was just really funny seeing your face and then you said that and realized what you said and how that could be something else."

She laughed, "You're supposed to ignore it and not _laugh_ at me."

"I can't help it," he said. "It's just too funny. Well, I always have _that_ equipment."

"I didn't mean," she looked down, only now realizing they were still holding hands. He wasn't pulling away so she wasn't going to pull away either.

"I've got you speechless? Well, you wouldn't be the first one," he teased.

Her blush deepened again. Just when she thought she felt comfortable around him, he had to go and be his charming self. "You're way too cocky for someone wearing a pair of pink Minnie Mouse sunglasses and a Triple H hat."

"I'm wearing _what_?" he said, pulling the hat off his hat with his free hand. His other one was still in hers. It was in fact a youth-sized Triple H hat. "Man, if I had known, I wouldn't have let her put this on me."

"You would've denied your daughter something important like dress-up?"

"Well, no, but think of the comments if people should get a picture of this. It'd be all over the internet, people would be up in arms," he joked. She thought back to the picture she'd seen of him and the comments and flurry surrounding him and Barbie. He'd probably learned all this first-hand when all he really wanted was a relationship.

"They'd be confused, that's for sure."

"Just a little, hopefully they'd get you in the picture too to deflect off of me," he said.

"Oh shut up," she told him, feeling comfortable again. It was strange how she wavered back and forth like she did. For some reason, he didn't answer her and they just sat there for a long moment, staring at each other. Stephanie gulped, her hand unconsciously gripping his tighter. He was looking down at their clasped hands and she felt self-conscious. She pulled away, "I should let you go, it's late, I have to get my girls and you probably have to get back to Barbie, right?"

"Bar...oh...yeah, Barbie," Chris said, shaking his head as if from a haze. "Yeah, I guess I should go..."

He sounded wistful, but it was probably her ears playing tricks on her. He took off the sunglasses and handed them to her and if she didn't know any better, his hand lingered in hers for a long moment. She held her breath as he stood up and then offered his hand. She let him pull her up and then he reached out and she couldn't for the life of her figure out what he was doing until he took the tiara off her head and then unwrapped the boa from around her neck.

"I'm really sorry about what Sierra did to your hair."

"I don't care," she said, knowing she probably looked horrible.

"Really, thanks for watching them."

"You're welcome."

He seemed like he didn't want to leave, but he finally gathered up his girls and left her alone, except she didn't really feel alone. She went to look in the mirror and her hair looked like she'd just woken up from a long nap, but she didn't care. Sierra could have colored on her hair with marker and she wouldn't have cared. Spending time with Chris was enough to go through anything, even a little girl's small hands pulling at her hair.

It was enough to put a smile on her face too.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story, it's really hard keeping them apart in this one! lol I've got ideas though and I'm so glad that you guys seem to be on board. Hope you like this chapter and reviews are always loved. :)

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"We have got to stop meeting like this."

Stephanie looked up from the magazine she'd been reading and into Chris's blue eyes. She could get used to looking up into his eyes. He slid a chair out and sat down next to her and she wouldn't have protested if he'd asked and the fact that he didn't ask and just assumed that she'd allow him her company gave her a weird feeling. She liked that he felt so comfortable with her that he didn't have to ask to sit down. She took pleasure in so many little things it was sad.

"You're the one sitting down next to me," she told him, sweetly.

"That is true, but we've been seeing a lot of each other lately, I think."

"Is that so?" she said and wondered when she had become so cool. She was being downright flirty and she wasn't even being her normal weird self. Her palms weren't even sweating! This was a new high for her and she had to admit, she liked it very much. Maybe she could be this cool a customer around him all the time. That would be something else if she could actually pull that off.

"Well, considering our daughters are getting to be quite the trio, yes, I'd say that we've been seeing a lot more of each other."

It was true though. Their daughters had been becoming fast friends and Aurora had even taken to asking about Cheyenne and Sierra when they weren't there. She'd look up at her and pathetically ask where her friends were. Because of this growing attachment, Chris and Stephanie had been setting up more play-dates where one or the other would watch over the girls. On some occasions they'd watch them together and they'd make small talk and Stephanie would avoid the subject of Barbie and pretend like she and Chris were dating and watching over their kids together, like some normal couple, if normal was having three toddlers.

Stephanie tried to act like Barbie didn't exist when she was around Chris. She didn't know if Barbie spent time with Chris when he had Aurora with him and she'd rather not know. She didn't mind Barbie being around her daughter; it wasn't like she was going to take Aurora from her. Barbie wasn't a bad person, Stephanie had never thought she was a bad person, she was just mad that she had gotten to Chris before she'd had a chance at him.

The window had been so slim she almost had no chance. She'd wanted to make her move, she'd wanted it for a while, but she thought that he would need a little time like she had between the divorce and the entire dating thing and she'd been so wrong. Chris had just jumped right back in with both feet and she'd been left watching as he galavanted around with his barely older than 20 girlfriend. She hated midlife crises. They were nothing but trouble and made good men, great men even go for girls young enough to be their daughters. It sickened her.

"Yeah, they are becoming great friends, huh?"

"It's good for them though. I mean, if they didn't have Aurora to play with, one, they'd be stuck together and well, sometimes they get sick of each other. You usually read about twins having no problems playing with each other all the time and how sometimes it's hard for them to make friends besides themselves because they're all each other know. Not so with Chey and Sierra. They are _happy_ to get away from each other sometimes. And two, it keeps them from being bored on the road with me. I was actually worried about that."

"I worried about it too when I decided to travel with them. I kept thinking, 'how am I going to keep a baby occupied?' and then it was, 'how am I going to keep a toddler occupied?' but they manage, don't they? They come up with all their fun games."

"Kids have great imaginations and thank God for it. So where are yours?" Chris asked. "With Paul?"

"Yeah, he had them for the weekend, he's bringing them tonight and I get them for the rest of the week."

"How is the custody with that going?"

"It helps that we're both in Connecticut. I never deny him access to his daughters. He is a good father to them," she said and it was true. Whatever her and Paul were didn't play into the fact of fatherhood. He was good to the girls and that was the best she could hope for.

"That's good. Does he get them often?"

"We switch off, it's kind of an open thing, there's no him getting them for this time and that's it or me getting them for that time and that's it. We kind of play it by ear. If he's missing them, they'll go over, spend some time with him. I have to admit though, I really hate it when they're gone. You feel like you're missing moments, you know and you want your kids around you, at least at this age. When they're something like 13, then I'll probably shove them out of the house at him."

Chris laughed and it looked like he was trying to visualize that picture. She wondered what her kids looked like in his mind. If he gave them her attributes. "I feel the same way," he admitted to her. "It's like you don't get that time back. That's the bad thing about divorce when you have kids. You can't just say to the other person that they can't have your kids, but then you want them too and I guess that's why a lot of divorces get messy, huh?"

"I'd imagine so."

"Was yours messy?"

"Not really, I mean, at first, Paul saying he wanted a divorce was very...it was strange, I guess. I didn't know what to say, really. It was just this surreal moment where you see the end, but you're not quite feeling the end yet. Then it settled in and I was like, you know, this is actually right and I'm not as upset as I thought I'd be. Sure, it was hard, but it wasn't as hard as I'd believed it would be. Anyways, once that got squared away, we both knew we wanted the kids and our lawyers were amazing at giving us both what we wanted and we came to the compromise that at least for the time being, we'd do holidays together."

"Oh wow, really?"

"I don't _hate _Paul. We just aren't right for each other. Surely I can get along with him for a few hours on Thanksgiving and Christmas."

"That's true."

"Was yours messy?" She wanted to put an addendum to that question, and is that why you're with Barbie now?

"No, not really," he said. "I think it was pretty much the same as yours. Except when she told me she wanted a divorce, she added, 'Chris, I've found someone else,' to the end of it, which, yeah, that caught me pretty off-guard."

"So that's why you're with Barbie," Stephanie muttered under her breath and then caught herself. She had not meant to say that. She'd just meant to think that, oh geez, she had not meant to say that at all even if she was thinking it. She could see Chris getting with Barbie just to piss off his wife and then end up liking her a lot and she needed to shut her mouth now.

Chris turned to her sharply, "What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"You said something," he said, "It sounded like you said...what did you say?"

She wondered if he had in fact heard what she said but was giving her the chance to refute it or come up with some excuse for what she'd said. She opted for the refute it. "I was just saying that is not cool of her to do." Chris looked a little skeptical, not really believing that's what she said, but he didn't try to argue with her. He just looked at her for a moment and she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable under his gaze. She gulped and then tried to speak, "So are your girls back home?"

"Yeah, they're staying home this week."

"Rora will be sorry to hear that."

"Yeah," he said, and he still sounded doubtful as to what she'd said. "But they'll be with me for three weeks after that, Ash too actually. Jessica has this huge convention overseas for her work and she's then planning to take a two week vacation after that going around Europe so I'm going to have the kids with me."

"Oh wow, house shows too?" she asked, glad the conversation had gone in a different direction.

"No, I talked with the big boss and he took me off house shows for those weeks."

"Wow, my dad was nice."

"Well, I guess he's getting soft in his old age."

"Yeah, he must be."

They sat there for a few moments later before Chris tapped her on the back of the hand. "Hey, Steph?"

"Yeah?" I asked, wondering what he needed or wanted.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

She looked up at him, her eyebrows knitting and her eyes crinkling at the edges. She didn't know what he meant by that, but then realized that maybe he was giving her an out for what she had muttered. God, he must have heard what she said and thought the worst of her. But she couldn't acknowledge now what she said because he'd catch her in a lie. As for things to tell him, there were _so_ many things she wished to tell him, but couldn't because she wasn't that type of person. She wasn't a relationship wrecker. Barbie was a good person, she knew this, she had no beef with her, she couldn't just uproot her relationship and who said that Chris would even want her in the first place. He probably didn't since blonde was his type.

"Tell you? What could I possibly need to tell you?" she asked nervously, biting her lip.

He just looked at her as if coaxing her with his eyes. She said nothing to those coaxing orbs of clear blue. He was mesmerizing, yes, but she had resolve if she had anything. He wasn't going to break her. "Sorry, I don't know, you just...I mean, I just...you know, never-mind, sorry I brought it up, you just looked like you had something to say and I assumed...nothing..."

"What did you assume?" she asked.

"Nothing, I didn't assume anything," Chris said.

"Yeah, okay," she said. "I better go. I've got work."

She didn't really want to go, but she was so embarrassed right now. What he must think of her! She had spoken so out of turn and he probably thought she was insulting him and Barbie by talking about their relationship as if it were some sort of weird revenge thing. He probably thought her a bitch and she felt like one at the moment. She hadn't meant to say that and now he probably thought she was just an immature gossip like the rest of the people around here.

"You don't have to go, I can go," he offered.

"No, I can go."

"Well, okay," he said. She walked off and didn't look back, though she could feel his eyes on her. She walked down the hallway a humiliated woman. She could never show her face to Chris again. She was just going to live out her days alone and embarrassed.

Of course, nothing ever went her way.

"So Chris took you out again last night, huh?"

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah, we just went out to dinner, it was nothing," Stephanie could hear Barbie say. How she wanted to say something with such casualness, like it was just a normal occurrence, like being with him was nothing special. She longed for nothing special.

"You two are together a lot."

"Yeah, I guess you can say that."

Stephanie thought she detected the slightest hint of haughtiness in her voice, like she was rubbing it in for everyone. Everyone look at Barbie Blank, the girl who got Chris Irvine! Come one, come all, come and see! Stephanie had to walk away before she heard anymore and puked up her dinner all over the hallway. She was so jealous of that little bitch that she almost instantaneously felt power surge through her and she wanted to fire the little slut. Okay, that was mean and she knew it, but she was boiling mad. First she had to make a fool out of herself _again_ in front of Chris and then Barbie with her gloating. She was going to go crazy.

She needed to get away.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews, guys, I'm happy you're liking the story and if you see fit, please review, thanks. :)

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Stephanie walked into her mother's office and dumped herself in the chair in front of her mother's desk. Linda looked up from the papers she'd been going over and then set her glasses down on the desk because Stephanie looked like she wanted to talk. Linda had seen this look so many times, especially when Stephanie was a teenager. For all the feuding and arguments they had onscreen, Linda and Stephanie were close with one another and Stephanie felt like a lot of the time, her mother was the only one who truly _got_ her.

"What is it, honey?" Linda asked.

Stephanie slumped down in her chair. "I think I need a vacation."

"Are you asking to take your vacation days? I think you've got some stored up from the previous ten years, so you could probably take half a year off with all the vacation time you've accumulated."

"I don't _want_ to take a vacation, that's the difference," Stephanie said. "I mean, I want to, but then I don't want it. It's for entirely selfish reasons that I would take a vacation right now and not because I necessarily wanted to go someplace."

"Okay, you're going to have to backtrack what you just said and let me know what you mean," Linda said, knowing her daughter too well and knowing that if Stephanie got going, she'd start talking so fast Linda wouldn't be able to understand a word her daughter was saying. "Think about what you want to say before you say it."

"Mom, how did you know you…I mean, no, let me rephrase that, who made the first move with you and Dad?"

"Well, neither, we met at church and that environment isn't exactly conducive to making moves," Linda joked kindly.

"Yeah, but you know what I mean," Stephanie said. "How did you know Dad was like, I mean, did he come up to you first or did you go up to him first, was it like a mutual thing, did you see each other and just _know_ that you were going to get married, you know, like the song, 'today, I met the boy I'm gonna marry,' was it like that?"

"Well, I don't really know. I was 13 and he was 16 and I just saw him and thought he was cute and the fact that he was older was really exciting. It's like it was a schoolgirl crush, but then your father asked me out and we started dating and--"

"And you were married by 18 and now you're still married and Shane is married and he met Marissa when they were practically in diapers and I'm the odd man out, I haven't met the one or if I have, he's making it very difficult to get."

Her mind was on Chris when she said that sentence. After hearing Barbie speak so casually and so nonplussed by going out with Chris, she found her jealousy to be rocketing into the stratosphere. She hated thinking nasty thoughts, sure, her character had no problem with it for the most part, but she wasn't her character and in the real world, she didn't like saying bad things about people unless they really deserved it and what had Barbie really done? Nothing, she'd just gotten to Chris first and it wasn't like Stephanie could honestly hate her for it. She could be jealous and believe her, she was, but she couldn't hate her for being with a person, especially when that person was as sweet and gorgeous as Chris was.

"You'll find the right person in time. Sometimes people don't get it right on the first try."

"You and Dad did, Shane and Marissa did."

"Well you, my dear, are different, you always have been, you've been headstrong and never complacent. You are who you are, Stephanie, and you can't change yourself and I wouldn't want you to change yourself. Why do you even want someone right now, you should wait a while, see the single life, sometimes I wish I had the single life," Linda confided in her playfully.

Stephanie gave a weak smile. "I guess you're right."

She'd been thinking the same thing. Maybe single life was the direction she was supposed to go in. Perhaps the idea of Chris had just been implanted in her head because she felt the need to be with someone. Before Paul, she'd been with her ex, and it did seem like she'd been in a relationship for a very long time. Maybe her mother was right and she needed to take a step back from dating. Mothers were usually right, right?

Except it wasn't that she wanted to date, it was that she wanted to date _Chris_. There was something about Chris, there'd always been something about Chris and the moment when they can actually be together passed them by so quickly, she felt like she'd blinked and missed it. Now she was looking back, searching for that moment, wondering where it had gone and had there really been a chance she could've captured it or was it just that far gone that she'd stood no chance for any moment to capture.

"I'm attracted to Chris Irvine," Stephanie confessed.

Linda raised her eyebrow. "Chris Irvine as in Chris Jericho?"

"One in the same."

"Interesting," Linda said, leaning back in her chair a little. "When did this come about?"

"Since I met him?" Stephanie said awkwardly, then amended that statement with, "well, at least since we started working together, I'd always thought…okay, this is going to sound silly, Mom, but I always kind of felt like there was something more between us. Like the only things holding us back were our relationships with other people. There'd be these moments, like, I don't even want to say they were romantic, but they were just moments we'd have this just…this moment, do you know what I mean?"

"I think so," Linda said. "I had no idea."

"Well, I played by the rules. Then when I thought he was available, you know, after he divorced his wife, I was going to make a play, but…he's dating Barbie Blank."

"Really?" Linda said, honestly surprised by this. Barbie had been one of her husband's impulsive ideas and Linda didn't much care for the girl. She thought Chris would have better taste than Barbie Blank.

"Yes and it is killing me. We've been hanging out because the girls have become fast friends, since Chris is bringing them around more because he wants to spend time with them and Aurora is happy for playmates that aren't her little sister and so they've been going on play-dates which puts me in the position of hanging around with Chris and it's torture, Mom, it's pure torture."

"Have you told him how you feel?"

"And get shot down in favor of a 20-something, petite, perky-breasted, blonde girl, no thank you," Stephanie scoffed.

"You never know until you try. Maybe Chris just gave in with her because he didn't think anyone better would come along."

"Mom, I love you, but I think you fail to see that Chris has legions of girls who would be more than willing to be with him, he could have his choice of so many women, why would he choose Barbie if he could choose anyone."

"Maybe he didn't think he could choose you," Linda pointed out.

Well that actually made sense. Stephanie thought about it for a long moment. Chris had been divorced before she was and she and Paul had waited a little bit to tell everyone. She figured the day they told everyone, people started having parties, thinking they were finally free from the horrible reign of King Paul. She smirked a little at that thought, but maybe her mother was right. Chris could've been single and then wanted her and couldn't have her so he turned to the closest available body…oh who was she kidding? That was probably not how it worked out at all. He probably chose her because he apparently had a thing for petite, blond girls and not tall, brunette women.

"He probably would laugh in my face if I told him."

"I think you should tell him," Linda said. "What have you got to lose?"

"My dignity, the ability to ever be around him again, just to name a couple things."

"So what? You get over it. Stephanie, you get over things, they don't linger around forever, not things like this. If you get rejected, so what, you find a guy that is wonderful and great and kind and who loves you."

"You're right," she said and of course Linda was right, she was the mother in this relationship. She only hoped she could give great advice to Aurora and Murphy when they got older.

"Now, I wasn't going to tell you before because you seemed very…well, I wasn't going to tell you, but Chris is here today."

"He's…what?"

"He's here, in the building."

"What is he doing here? He's not supposed to be here, why is he here?" Stephanie asked, sitting straight up and looking around like he was going to pop out from behind the couch or something. She tucked her hair behind her ears, trying to make herself look presentable. She wondered if people would laugh at her for being so flustered. She really wasn't anything like the character she portrayed on television. Sometimes, she really felt like a very awkward, little girl.

"Well, he had a meeting with your father."

"Oh really?"

"He should still be here if you want to find him. He's probably still up with your father as their meeting was a little while ago."

"He probably left," Stephanie said. She wasn't sure if she wanted to meet him or not. She thought for a moment and that turned into a definitely not. She was wearing her ugly work clothes and she had barely any makeup on and her hair wasn't done and why was she thinking about this? It wasn't like Chris was going to look at her that way when he had a girlfriend, plus he'd seen her playing dress-up, there was nowhere to go but up after that.

"I don't know."

"Thanks for the talk, Mom, I'm going to go back to my office."

"Okay, honey, you know if you want to vent more, I'm here."

"I know," she said gratefully as she rounded the desk and pressed a kiss to her mother's cheek in goodbye as she left her mother's office. Her own office was a couple floors down so she trudged her way to the elevator and waited for the doors to open. When they did she stepped inside and pressed the button for her own floor. She'd get the work done for today, go pick up the girls at Paul's, make them dinner, put them to bed and maybe work some more before she headed off. That sounded like a very eventful night.

She walked back into her office and without even looking made her way to her desk. It was like the route was ingrained in her brain. She didn't even need to think anymore. Her routine was the same, almost dull. It wasn't that she hated her life or despised it or anything like that, it just was the same thing over and over again and sometimes it got a little boring. At least when she'd been marginally happy with Paul he would come and keep her company or bring the girls and the room would be filled with laughter and smiling and playfulness instead of the quiet that was slowly descending from the ceiling like slipping vines slinking their way down.

"Hey, Steph."

"Oh my God!" Stephanie screamed as she looked over to her couch and saw Chris sitting there, now smiling amusedly at her. Was there ever going to be a time where she didn't look like a fool in front of him?

He laughed under his breath. "Sorry, I just kind of thought you would see me under here, you know."

"I should have, I was just off in my own world."

"I could see that, I probably should've gone for a gentler way of getting your attention." She pictured him kissing her to get her attention and her stomach ached for a moment.

"Yeah, hopefully you choose that path next time," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I had a meet--"

"Oh no, I know that," she interrupted quickly. She didn't need a rehash. "I mean, I know you had a meeting, not what it was about, but…"

"I just needed the next couple of weekends off house shows, wanted to get away a little."

"Vacation?"

"Kind of, Jessica has to stay with her mother because she's been really sick and she didn't want to bring the kids along because they're not exactly…quiet, which is something that her mom needs so I was hoping to get time off so I could spend the weekends with them. They'll be traveling with me on TV days. I guess I could have gone to Laurinaitis, but I figured I'd go to the big boss."

"And my dad gave you the weekends off, right?" Stephanie said, ready to go to bat for Chris if need be.

"Yeah, he was really nice about it," Chris nodded.

"Good, he's got a good heart buried in there."

"Yeah," Chris said. They kind of remained silent for a moment and Stephanie tried to busy herself with pushing papers around her desk absently. She was probably going to mess up her file system and have to stay late to fix it, but she hated this awkward silence. She looked up and saw Chris was staring at her.

"Um, yeah?" she asked.

Chris, startled, shook himself from whatever reverie he'd been in and stuck his hands deep in his pockets. "Sorry, just seeing what you were doing."

"Oh, nothing really," Stephanie said. "So you came to see me, did you need something? Did you want something? I mean, we can talk your storyline if that's why you came here, I've got a free moment…"

"Have you eaten?"

"Excuse me."

"Eaten, you know, food, the thing you ingest and then digest and then, well, I think you know the process," he joked.

"Oh, um," she actually had to think about whether or not she had eaten. Whether this was because she just genuinely didn't remember or because the thought of Chris asking her out to eat felt like such a date move that she was currently drowning in excitement, she didn't know. "No, no, I haven't." Even if she had, she would've said she hadn't.

"Cool, any good places around here?"

"There's a place that makes great fish tacos."

"I could go for fish tacos," Chris smiled.

"You want to go with me?"

"Um, that's why I asked if you'd eaten," he said, not realizing he'd had to clarify that."

"Oh, of course, I'm sorry," she said, flustered, beyond flustered, what was beyond flustered? Freaking out? Was that beyond flustered because this had nothing to do with their daughters and Barbie wasn't going to interrupt, unless she was here, oh God, what if he'd brought her to Connecticut like some little trophy to parade around? "Just us."

"Yeah, why did you want to invite someone?" he asked, looking at her with a hard gaze.

"No, not at all."

He brightened a tiny bit. "Then come on, lead the way." Stephanie had the urge to ask if Barbie would be okay with them going out. Maybe she was the jealous type and wouldn't like it. But Stephanie held her tongue and then smiled over at him.

For one afternoon, who gave a damn what Barbie Blank thought.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thanks a bunch for the reviews for this, I'm really glad people liked this. The author Glamagirl kind of requested this story to be updated so here it is. I hope you guys like it and reviews are appreciated and welcomed. :)

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"Let me pay."

Stephanie had had her hand in her purse, ready to pull out her wallet when Chris said that. She looked at him and he smiled at her. "I can't let you pay."

"No, really, come on, your food came to like seven dollars, I think I can afford seven dollars, you've seen my paycheck, right?"

"I know what you're paid, Chris, I'm your boss," she said, "but you shouldn't pay for me, I can pay for myself."

"I'm sure you can, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to offer."

"Is someone going to pay here?" the guy at the counter asked, trying to be polite, but he didn't really have time to see these two people argue about who was going to pay.

"I'm going to pay," Chris spoke up.

"No, I'm going to pay for myself." For some reason, Stephanie didn't want Chris to pay for her and it was because of Barbie. Stephanie was the kind of person who took things the wrong way all the time and if Barbie was anything like that, Chris buying lunch for another woman was not something she'd want to hear about. Despite Stephanie trying to convince herself that she shouldn't care about Barbie, she couldn't just make the girl drop from her mind. Stephanie wasn't that kind of person.

"No, I'm going to pay for her," Chris said, trying to step on front of her.

Stephanie stepped in front of him, "I'll just pay for myself, thank you."

"No, she's not," Chris said, elbowing his way in front of Stephanie.

"Chris, stop," Stephanie said, trying to duck under his arm, but he had a very large arm that was very muscular and he held her back as he grabbed money out of his pocket, simultaneously ordering his own food and holding Stephanie off. "Chris!"

"Thanks," Chris said to the guy as he got his change. He turned and grinned at Stephanie, feeling pretty triumphant about the entire thing. She glared at him as she stomped over to an available table. Chris set their number down on the edge and then sat down across from her. "You don't have to pout."

"I could've paid for myself," she told him. What if this got out to Barbie? She didn't want to cause trouble. She was not a shit-stirrer and she didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea. She'd never been a relationship-breaker, the "other woman," and she didn't want to be misconstrued as one right now.

"Yeah, I know, you're worth millions of dollars, but I just thought it would be nice if I paid for you."

"Because you're the guy and you felt obligated?" she asked.

"Something like that, I guess, I really just wanted to be nice, you know, not like, 'oh, I'm the guy, I must pay,' sorry, I won't buy you anything ever again," he said, pretending to be offended, but he was really just joking around with her. "If we go out again at some point, I will let you pay, okay?"

"Well that's fair," she nodded. In actuality, she was now embarrassed about how she had acted. He was just trying to do something nice for her and she had been so obstinate about it and he probably thought she was such a freak. She just never could be totally herself when she was around Chris. She was reduced to a bumbling mess and now she was being combative with him. "Sorry for acting like a bitch right there."

"You wouldn't be you if that bitchiness didn't shine through every now and then," Chris told her, giving her a smile. "I like that about you."

"You like that I can be bitchy?"

"Yeah, I do, you don't hide who you are from anyone and it's not necessarily that you wear your heart on your sleeve or anything because I don't think you do, but it's more a case of like, you just are who you are and you're not going to apologize for being that person."

"Well that's a nice way of putting it."

"It makes you Stephanie."

"I guess it does," she said, blushing slightly, but trying to control herself. She'd already made a fool out of herself in front of him at least twice today, she didn't want to make it a third time. "So how long are you staying in town?"

"Oh, I'm flying back tonight," he said and he sounded a bit regretful for that, but she couldn't understand why so it must just be her. "Jessica's leaving in the morning so I'm going to take the kids tonight."

"I hope her mother will be okay."

"She will be, she just had to have surgery, double hip replacement so she's going to be pretty immobile and pretty high on pain killers for a while and her parents are divorced so there's nobody to take care of her mom that can take care of her. Jessica's sister works, Jessica doesn't, so she's going to stay with her mom, probably for a couple of weeks, but maybe for a month. I just don't want to drag my kids on our schedule, you know."

"Yeah, I get that, it's not for everyone."

"Oh damn it, I'm sorry, Steph, that wasn't a dig against you and bringing the girls with you when you travel."

"No, no, no, it's okay, I get what you mean. My girls are used to it, it's what they know."

"Plus you have a pretty swank set-up in that bus of yours, do you still have it?" Chris asked and she knew he'd only realized now that she'd shared that bus with Paul.

"I have my own now," Stephanie said, "I don't think I'd have been able to stand it if I had to live on a bus that has 'Triple H' embossed everywhere the eye can see, you know."

Chris laughed, "Yeah, I don't think I could live on anything that had his name everywhere either."

"So you get what I'm saying," Stephanie said. "I have my own and the girls are fine with it. No worries about insulting me, I know it's not the lifestyle most parents choose for their children, but I guess I'm getting it into them early that wrestling is a full-time commitment."

"Yeah, I know, I should rent one for the next month for my kids," Chris laughed.

"That'd be something, we could be a convoy," she joked and this was a little easier now. When they were talking about their kids it seemed safe because their kids were not themselves and they could just talk about them and avoid talking about themselves. If she just spoke about Aurora and Murphy she wouldn't blurt out something stupid like how much she was attracted to Chris. It didn't help that he looked amazing today.

She knew that most of the time, when he wasn't working, he was in a t-shirt and jeans, and today was no exception. He was wearing a t-shirt that hugged his body perfectly and jeans that left little to the imagination and she tried not to stare too long lest she start to drool and embarrass herself once again. He didn't need to see a little line of drool falling from her mouth onto the table in front of her. She quickly took a sip of her soda to banish this thought from her mind.

He laughed, "Yeah, the traveling circus."

She laughed and then they fell silent and she just looked at him, feeling uncomfortable. She wondered if he felt the same way and he did kind of look uncomfortable as he twiddled his straw around his drink. She knew it was her turn to speak, but nothing witty or funny was coming to her. "So Barbie's nice," she ended up saying and she groaned inwardly. Great, now she was opening up a window she didn't want opened and all this Barbie stuff was going to come flying in.

"Yeah, she is nice," Chris nodded. "She's very nice."

"Yeah, she's pretty too."

"Yeah, she's definitely pretty," Chris said, looking at her strangely. "She's not classically beautiful, you know, she's kind of like, artsy beautiful."

"Artsy beautiful, that's an interesting way of describing it," Stephanie said, looking off, wondering what the hell was wrong with her brain. Why did it turn to mush whenever Chris was around?

"Well, that's what she is," Chris said. "Like sometimes, you look at her and you're like, she's not very pretty, but then at another angle, you're like, oh, I get it."

"Oh yeah, I know what you mean now."

"With some people, you're just like, wow, you're really beautiful from every angle," Chris said, then opened his mouth, but shut it again. "Just you know, saying."

"Yeah, just saying. She's really improved I have to say, I mean, in the ring and everything, from you know, when she started and she was basically a glorified stripper."

Chris's face darkened just the tiniest bit, "Yeah, I mean, talk about stupid, tell me that was your father's idea."

"Who else?" Stephanie said.

"Yeah, I figured, I mean, I know your father likes to do crazy, wacky, what he thinks is hilarious stuff with the divas, but that was just beyond bad. It's stuff like that that gives wrestling such a bad name, you know and Barb deserved better than that. I'm glad she's getting a chance right now to improve. Not saying she'll ever be a Trish or anything, but just able to hold her own."

"She does seem to be improving, she's been working hard I take it?"

"Yeah, she does work hard," Chris said. "I'm proud of her."

"You should be," Stephanie said, wishing she could change the subject but her brain was just shutting down, telling her that it was going home, she was a hopeless cause and she'd gone beyond the point of no return. Thankfully an interruption came in the form of their food and she looked gratefully towards the waiter as he set their food down and asked if they needed anything else. They declined and she looked at the food in front of her, her savior. She picked up one of her tacos and took a big bite, all the better to chew for a very long time and not have to hear about Barbie for at least a few moments. He was proud of her, _proud_ of her, God, if that wasn't such a boyfriend statement, looking at her with pride, being all prideful that he was the one screwing her. She hated pride.

"Steph?"

She looked up at him, swallowing her bite of food. "Yeah?"

"You've got a little something on your face," he told her, his eyes lighting up in amusement.

Would someone just kill her now? Just when she thought she'd embarrassed herself in front of him enough, that there was _no_ possible way she could embarrass herself further, her body and mind betrayed her and found just the right way to make herself look like an even bigger idiot. Maybe when they were walking out of here she could just run right into the door to complete this picture.

"Oh God," she muttered to herself, trying to find it on her face.

"Here, let me," Chris said, reaching out with his napkin and wiping her face. "There, got it, didn't need that glob of sauce messing up that pretty face."

And then he comes right in with the compliments. She closed her eyes, controlled her breathing and her blushing (it was coming back fiercely now!) and opened her eyes. "Thanks, you must think I'm such a dork."

"Why?" he asked curiously, obviously not understand why she would think that.

"Well, first, I don't even notice you in my office and then nearly jump through the ceiling when you announce your presence, then I fight you to try and pay instead of thanking you for the nice gesture and now I'm such a sloppy eater I get sauce on my cheek."

He laughed, "It could've been worse, you could've had sauce on your forehead and then I really would've questioned your eating habits."

She shook her head, "You just must think I'm such a loser."

"Hardly," he scoffed. "You're not a loser at all, if we had to separate this world into winners and losers, you would absolutely go in the winners column, there wouldn't even be a debate, you're an absolute winner."

"Not in love, I'm a complete loser in love," she said, revealing more of herself in that one sentence than she had wanted to reveal, especially in front of Chris. "I'm sorry, just disregard I even said that."

"You can talk about that if you want, it's just us."

"It's okay, I talked about it with my mom earlier, I just feel like a loser sometimes, compared to the rest of my family. My mom and dad met when they were teenagers, Shane and Marissa met when they were kids and it's like, hey, look at that outcast who hasn't found love yet, who hasn't found the one yet, or who has and realized they've lost the chance," she said, peering up at him earnestly, wishing he would get the hint, wishing he would know that it was him she was talking about, but he had no idea her feelings so she knew his brain would not immediately think to him.

"Sometimes it takes a few tries."

"That's pretty much what she said, I'm not convinced though."

"Are you talking about Paul, with the whole lost your chance thing?"

Just as she thought, "No, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Okay," he said slowly, "but you know, there's probably some guy out there who is just waiting for the chance to be with you, who _wants_ to be with you right now, but either he doesn't know you or hasn't worked up the courage to tell you how he feels."

"You really think there's someone out there like that?" she asked, shaking her head. "I'm probably doomed to be alone."

"I don't think so."

"So really, you think that some guy is going to come sweep me off my feet and make me forget any other man in the entire world exists?" she asked, looking at him, her deep blue eyes piercing his lighter ones, wishing he would just see what was in front of him. She couldn't verbalize her thoughts for fear of rejection, but if he guessed them, if he just said the word, the confession would spill out of her mouth like an avalanche.

"Yeah, I think that guy is out there, waiting for his chance."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks to everyone for the great reviews! I took all your suggestions into practice with the story so I hope you like where it's going (see the power of the review :P) and reviews are always loved and appreciated, thanks, enjoy...oh and keep on the lookout for updates, I'm going to update at least one story a day for the next week or so until all my stories are updated. :)

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"Hey, guess what!"

Stephanie looked up as Chris peeked his head into her office. It was such a pleasant surprise to see him that the smile came naturally to her face, as if it were supposed to be there all along. It was always nice to see Chris, but to see him just pop in, like he belonged here, like he was with her and just wanted to talk to her was something special. She really needed to quit with those thoughts. They were starting to become too commonplace in her brain and if she wasn't careful she was going to start believing things that weren't true.

"What?"

"No, you're supposed to guess," Chris said, walking into her office and sitting down.

"Where are your kids?"

"You know who is actually taking care of them right now?" Chris said, tilting his head to the side to incite her to take a guess.

"Barbie?" Stephanie wondered, figuring that if Chris were to leave his children with anyone it would be with his girlfriend. It would probably be a good opportunity for Barbie to get to know them and for them to get accustomed to her. As long as Barbie didn't forget one of them somewhere, but Stephanie was fairly positive that Barbie could count to three, fairly positive, if she didn't count Cheyenne or Sierra twice because they were identical twins…

"No," Chris said, his eyebrows knitting a little. "They're not with her, no."

"Oh, then I'm stumped," she shrugged, hoping he would just tell her. For a moment, she wanted to think that the kids weren't with Barbie because they'd broken up, but that was probably wishful thinking. She would hope the rumor mill would reach her of that was making the rounds.

"Ted DiBiase Jr.," Chris chuckled. "Can you believe that? Ted, _Ted_ is taking care of my kids right now."

"You sound incredulous at that, which is weird since I'm guessing _you_ were the one to entrust them to him."

"He offered, I was at ringside because they were getting stir-crazy so I was letting them run up and down the aisles and generally be nuisances for the set-up crew. Ted was out there, I don't know why and Ash took a liking to him and showed him the ring and the girls became fascinated with what they were doing and Ted offered to watch them and when you're with your kids as much as I've had to be, you cut and run."

Stephanie laughed, "Actually, Ted is really good with kids, you wouldn't think so, but Aurora and Murphy both know who he is."

"And you didn't let me in on this secret, thanks a lot and I thought we were friends," he told her, shaking his head.

"Sorry?"

"I'll only leave them with him for twenty minutes, that's about their attention span right now. I won't make him chase them around the entire backstage area and then inevitably lose one of them and then I have to go search for one of my kids," he said, obviously joking and rambling and she found it endearing, like he got tongue-tied around her or something. She didn't think someone like Chris ever got tongue-tied though. He always seemed to have words for everyone.

"I understand," she told him. "The girls are here tonight, they're with my dad. He bought them presents while he was out of town the other day and he's giving them to them, making sure they're completely spoiled."

"Grandparents do that, my dad definitely does that with them. I think it's like a rite of passage when you have grandchildren, you _have_ to spoil them. Someday, my grandkids are going to be the most spoiled brats that ever lived, then I'll ship them back home to their parents."

"You've got it all planned out, huh?"

"Well, when you're divorced, you have a lot of time on your hands unfortunately."

She would've figured he'd be out every night with his girlfriend, his much younger girlfriend who probably wanted to party all the time and then go back to their hotel room and have sex until dawn. Now she was grossing herself out over the imagery. "Yeah, you do, then you start thinking about where you went wrong and what you could've done better or more often or--"

"Timeout! We're not heading down that path," Chris said. "We are better than that and we are not wallowers. Now, I never even got to tell you what I really came in here for."

"I thought it was to tell me that Ted was watching your kids," she told him.

"No, no, no, I have news, so guess it, guess the news."

The way he was acting so giddy, she was almost afraid he'd done something stupid like proposed to Barbie or something, but she wasn't about to say that. "I don't know, you're winning the World Title?"

"Wouldn't _you _know that before I did?"

She laughed, "Yeah, yeah, I guess I would. So what is it?"

"Guess," he insisted.

"Chris, I have no clue what it is," Stephanie told him. "I'm not good at guessing games so if you would please just tell me instead of keeping me in such suspense."

"Fine, but you're no fun," he told her, but then became giddy again, "I took your advice and rented out a bus for the next month!"

"What?"

"We can be a convoy now, you can honk your horn and I'll honk my horn and it'll be like a huge road trip!"

She just stared at him, like the words coming out of his mouth were gibberish and she was trying to decipher them. "You rented a bus."

"Yes, and it wasn't cheap, let me tell you, but I figured, you travel this way with your girls and it gives you your own space, you know, you have space for them to walk around and color and do what they like to do, but you're still traveling, you know. Sierra is really prone to ear infections so it's not a great idea for her to fly a lot and I just took Ash out of preschool for the month so we're all onboard. I told them it's going to be like going on vacation for a month. In between shows, we'll just do a ton of sight-seeing and just vacation type stuff, I think it'll be fun for all of us and if they get seriously cranky, we can fly home for a few days."

"You've really thought this through."

"I have, plus, you're on the road, right?"

"Yeah, I'm on the road."

"So the kids won't get bored and your kids will have other kids to play with too so they won't get bored and everyone wins, right?"

"Aurora and Murphy do sort of get sick of me at times when we're on the road for a while, Aurora more so. She'll be glad to have some kids she can play with."

"We can hang out all the time," Chris said, acting like a little kid who was going away to summer camp or something. He was so excited that she could start to feel some excitement creep up inside of her. If they were all on the road together, that meant she'd get to spend time with him, a lot of time with him…unless Barbie was traveling with him. She cringed a little at that and Chris picked up on it. "Or we don't have to hang out…I mean, I was just saying…speculating."

Stephanie snapped to it, realizing that she'd just looked like she wouldn't want that when she very much did. "No, no, no, I'm sorry, I was just…my mind was wandering. I think it'll be a lot of fun. It can get lonely when we're in the middle of one of the trips, you know, from place to place. It would be fun to have the company, I definitely think we should hang out."

Chris brightened up considerably and took a deep breath, "Great, because I think I would go crazy if I didn't have another adult to talk to. I don't think I should talk to the bus drivers since you know, they're working and everything and I really do want them to keep their eyes on the road. We can even have like, dinner together, I can invite you over to our bus for dinner."

She laughed, "That sounds like a plan."

"Come on, I want to show you the bus."

"It's _here_?" she asked.

"Yeah, tonight is the inaugural night," Chris said, standing up and holding out his hand. "Come on, let me show it to you. It makes me feel like a rock star or something. Well, it would if I didn't have three kids tagging along."

Stephanie laughed and stood up. Before she could do anything, Chris's hand was curled around hers and he was pulling her towards the door. She tightened her grip on his hand then followed him. She had to admit, his grip was strong, yet there was a gentleness to it that she really liked. They were walking down the hallway hand-in-hand and she could see some people raising their eyebrows at the two of them and she couldn't help the haughtiness she was feeling. She wondered if this was what it would be like if they were really dating. Them just walking down the hallway.

She passed by Hunter and he nearly stared a hole into her and she raised her head just a little bit more. It wasn't a revenge move or a look at me move, she just wanted Hunter to be clear that he could not step into whatever this was right now, not that there _was_ anything. Chris was dating Barbie so it wasn't like he was holding her hand because he liked her. He was just anxious to show her the bus he'd gotten. They walked out the back and into the loading area. She saw her own bus and then a bus of equal size right behind it.

"There she is," Chris said, trying to sound gruff. "Ain't she a beaut?"

"You're crazy," she giggled as he unlocked the door to the bus. He pulled open the door and then let her go first. She took a few steps inside and just hoped that Barbie wasn't waiting naked to surprise him or something. That would be awkward to say the least.

Suddenly, Chris's head was right over his shoulder and he was whispering, "Isn't it awesome?"

She was a little startled by his closeness, but she'd stopped on the top step and there was really no room for Chris to be anywhere else. The interior was really nice, beautiful even, with hardwood floors and leather couches and everything. "This is really beautiful."

"It's called the Presidential, pretty sweet, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"Come on, come see the bedroom. Now the couches are fold-outs, so the kids are going to sleep there. The girls will probably want to share, but there are enough beds for all of them. Now, being the dad, I get the master bedroom." He pulled her into the back of the bus where there was a master bedroom, including a large bed with cream sheets and a multitude of pillows. Chris jumped on the bed, laying back. "You have got to feel this mattress, it's better than the one I have at home."

She looked at him, lying on top of those covers and she was tempted, so very tempted, but if she was on a bed with him, could she really keep her hands off him? What if she just jumped him without thought of repercussion. She tentatively reached out and pressed her hand down on the mattress. "Seems very soft."

"Steph, you can't judge by that, just hop on," he said, patting the spot next to him.

"It's fine, I believe you."

"You're not going to get your hair messy, come on," Chris said, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her forcefully towards the bed. She landed on her face with a squeal and Chris started laughing as she lay there, her face on the mattress.

She turned her head, her hair falling in her face and making her look like she'd just woken up. "Thanks a lot."

"You look good like that," he told her and she wondered what he meant by that, did he mean she looked good with her hair like that or she looked good being on the bed?

"Gee thanks," she settled for the ambiguous response. She turned on her side to face him and he was grinning at her.

"So?"

"So what?"

"The mattress, nice, huh?"

"It's very nice."

"I am going to have a good time sleeping on this," he winked and she didn't like the implications of that, but surely he wouldn't have sex with Barbie when his kids would be sleeping not ten feet away, surely he wouldn't…couldn't. No, he wouldn't, that would be too weird. "This whole set-up is swank. I should've thought of this ages ago. And did you see the dining room table out there? We can have dinner in there sometimes, if you want to."

"That'd be fun, you cooking?" she asked.

"Sure or we can get fast food and just eat it in here, whatever we want," Chris said. "This is going to be great. Are you excited?"

"I am," she told him with a nod. "So it'll just…" she was going to ask if Barbie was coming alone, but why ruin the moment? "Just be a long road trip for us."

"Exactly, I never really got to do that when I was a kid, though my dad always promised to take us, but you know, he never really had the time, what with playing hockey. When I'm not working, I'm going to be such a tourist."

"Even though you've probably been to every place we're going for the next month?"

"Yeah because I never get to see a city from the tourists' point of view. I'm always here for work and then I'm gone, but since we'll be driving, I can take my time and let my kids see a bunch of interesting stuff they wouldn't get to see otherwise. Jessica thought it was an awesome idea too, she was all for it, said that it got them out exploring new things and how it's especially good for Ash."

"I never looked at it that way."

"So you want to be tourists too?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeah, I guess you can sign me in."

"I knew you would want to," he said.

"So you planned this whole thing then?" she wondered, staring him in the eyes, completely forgetting the setting they were in at the moment. It seemed he was getting lost too because it took him a few moments to answer and she became uncomfortable under his intense gaze.

"Maybe, maybe not."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Glad people are liking this story and holding out hope for our couple to get their acts together. Hope you like this and leave a review if you want, they always make my day. :)

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"Daddy, why sleep on bus?"

Chris looked down at Cheyenne, who was looking up at him and smiling. "Remember, we were going to go on a vacation while Daddy works, this is where we're going to be staying."

"On a bus?" she asked curiously. To her a bus was for riding to school.

"Yeah, it's not like a regular bus, it's better than a regular bus, it's nicer than a regular bus, you want to hop on?" Chris asked.

"Okay," Cheyenne assented and Chris grabbed her hands and lifted her up off the ground and onto the first step and then lifted her up the second and then one more and they were there. He'd already helped Sierra and Ash onto the bus and they were looking around in awe. They probably hadn't expected anything like this. Sierra was trying to climb onto the couch and Ash gave her a boost up.

"You like it guys?" Chris asked.

"This is cool, Daddy," Ash said, climbing up onto the couch next to Sierra. He looked out the window. "Are we really going to sleep in here, Daddy?"

"Yeah and while you're sleeping, we'll be driving so when you wake up, we'll be in a completely different place."

"Like magic?" Sierra asked, flopping herself onto the couch and looking up at Chris with those luminous blue eyes, curious about her surroundings. She had more curious tendencies than Cheyenne. Cheyenne was always just content with her surroundings, asking few questions, the ones that were important, but Sierra wanted to know everything about everything and she made it a point to know it all.

"Kind of like magic, but we're going to have a couple people driving us around and they'll be driving while we're in the back doing our own thing."

"Oh, okay," she said, joining her sister and brother on the couch and looking out the window.

This was the scene Stephanie walked in on when she made her way over to Chris's bus. She'd just been settling the girls into their bus. Aurora had been tired, but awake and Murphy was completely out. Stephanie had brought Murphy to her crib and Aurora was watching a video. She felt comfortable leaving her for a little bit to check in on Chris and see how he was doing.

"Hey," Stephanie said as she stuck her head inside, "Is it okay that I come in?"

Chris looked flustered to see her and he turned almost in shock that she was there, but then he eased into a smile. "Stephanie, hey, I guess I wasn't expecting you."

"Really, because you were just talking to me a few minutes ago," she joked with him and he looked to be a little embarrassed, but she didn't know what he had to be embarrassed about. "I just wanted to check in, see how the new neighbors were doing."

He seemed to appreciate the joke as he laughed. "Neighbors, I like that. We're settling in, the kids like it, I think." He looked behind him and they were off the couch and peeking into drawers and cabinets to see what goodies (or lack thereof) were in there. "They're amazed."

"Well, it's a whole new thing," she said, leaning on the bar. "They're bound to wonder about it. Anyways, I talked to my driver and he said we're set to leave in about an hour, are you going to put your girls to bed?"

"They're not really tired. I think being here tonight and the new surroundings have got the energy and adrenaline up so I think they're going to be up for a while, what about your kids?"

"Aurora's still up, she usually stays up late on Monday nights waiting for me or Paul whenever he has them, but then it's back to routine on Tuesdays and the rest of the week. I think she just knows what we do each week, you know."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," he said, taking a few steps so he was closer to her. She smiled up at him and it was getting easier to be around him, she found. After all, he was just Chris and even if she liked him (a lot?) he was still just a guy and she shouldn't be too tongue-tied around him. At least this was what she told herself so she _didn't_ get tongue-tied around him, which was just so easy around Chris. Those eyes, it was the eyes that sucked you in and then you were a pile of mush. Maybe that's how Barbie had gotten sucked in, probably.

"If you want your kids to get to sleep, I've got a million DVD's over on my bus and you're welcome to use them. They usually help Aurora get to sleep. If you want to borrow any," she offered him.

"That would actually be great, thanks," he said, leaning in a little closer so that he was now leaning on the other side of the rail, just to the left of her. "Do you think we could raid it right now, or at least look? I'm pretty tired and I don't want them to be up all night and keeping me up because we do have SmackDown tomorrow."

"Yeah, of course," Stephanie said, "Come on, before we go."

Chris nodded and she went down the steps as she heard Chris rounding up his children. She went back to her bus and got on, seeing that Aurora was chewing on her blanket as she stared up at the television, which was playing her movie. She was watching in rapt attention when Stephanie took the few steps inside. She smiled over at her, her blanket clenched between her teeth.

"Hey, you, you enjoying your movie?" Stephanie asked.

"Uh huh," Aurora nodded as she went back to watching it. Stephanie could hear Chris closing in on her so she turned around and helped him get the girls into the bus. Aurora was curious as to what was going on and she tore her eyes away from her movie to see who was coming to visit. Her eyes lit up when she saw her friends. "Hi!"

"Hi!" Sierra exclaimed, bouncing over to Aurora like a small bunny. She turned to the TV and her eyes lit up, "Cars!"

"Uh huh, I'm watch it," Aurora said, happy to see her friends and her previous exhaustion forgotten about. Cheyenne ran over and even Ash's face was interested. "You watch too?"

"Okay, Daddy, I wanna watch!" Sierra yelled at him as Chris winced at the tone of her voice and hoped that she didn't wake up Murphy, who Chris knew was asleep.

"Indoor voice, Si," he told her. "And I think Aurora is watching that one."

"They can stay," Stephanie said. "Aurora's already watching it and she likes the company and your kids obviously want to watch it, so we can just sit and watch it and whenever the bus stops for gas or for a driver change, you can bring your kids to their bus. Or even, you can go sleep on your bus and I can watch them."

"I can't ask you to do that."

"You've been working tonight though."

"And you haven't," he said and she thought it was extremely thoughtful of him to think of her. "You do just as much around here as I do and you know it, maybe more."

"Chris," she said, tilting her head, wishing he wouldn't give her compliments like that.

"I like the first idea. I can watch a movie, I just need time to decompress and this is the best way anyways, who doesn't like a good movie, am I right?" Chris said. "I'm just going to tell my driver that I'll be hanging out here, but to go ahead and leave."

"Okay," Stephanie nodded, not sure she wanted to be so cramped with him. It was a good idea when they were just talking about it, but now that she was going to be stuck on a bus with him for a little while, she wasn't sure she'd be able to take it. She almost wished she was still on that bus with Paul's ring name all over it just so she'd be distracted enough to not get distracted by Chris.

She helped Chris's kids onto the couch and grabbed an extra blanket to throw over them so they could get comfortable. Then she helped them off with their shoes so they didn't feel like they were somewhere formal. While she was doing this, Chris came back and helped her finish the job. She sat back on the other couch and Chris sat next to her, scooting a little closer and she almost wanted to scoot away. Stephanie restarted the movie so Chris's kids could see it from the beginning (though Chris whispered to her that they'd seen this at least 5 times) and then she settled back against the couch and Chris did the same, turning towards her a little. She instinctively turned towards him.

"So I think this is going very well so far. I really just hope I don't learn that one of my kids gets horribly car sick," Chris joked.

"It doesn't get too bad, I promise," she told him.

"Good, I'm glad that I won't be alone on this whole adventure," he told her with a soft smile. With the dim lights of the bus, it seemed to make him glow in the light of the television. It made him even more handsome than he usually was because it added this softness to him she didn't see when he was wrestling. Dear God help her, how was she going to last a couple hours with him, let alone a month. She was going to make a fool of herself, she could see it now.

"It does get pretty lonely sometimes."

"That's why you need a boyfriend," he said patting her on the knee. "That way you could be together and then move in together and he could move in here and then you can get married again and won't be alone."

"If only it were that easy."

"I know," he nodded. "Life is never easy and then you've got this whole trust thing after you get divorced, like should I trust in this relationship. It's all very confusing, but in the end, you hope it's satisfying."

"Do you see yourself getting married again?" she asked him, curious as to his thoughts. "I mean, not just like, 'Oh yeah, I'd _like_ to get married again, if I find the real right one,' but more like do you honestly see yourself going through the whole thing again?"

Chris stared at her a moment, then looked at his kids and then back at her. He pursed his lips a little in that way he did, where his eyes narrowed, but he still remained handsome. "Yeah, I can, I mean, I do believe in that right person, you know. Sometimes they're just kind of hiding in plain sight."

"Then someday you find them," Stephanie said. "Have you found yours, Chris?" She was being bold now. She was inquiring about Barbie and digging deeper.

"That's for me to know and you to be quiet," he told her with a laugh. The bus started to go and Chris took note, "We're leaving, finally."

"Great," Stephanie said, kind of glad their conversation could be interrupted before they really got into it and he started going on about how Barbie might be the one. "I'm going to watch this movie, I've never actually sat all the way through it. Paul was the one who took her to see it."

"You don't know what you're missing then," he said, turning to the TV and Stephanie did the same.

She still wouldn't know what she was missing because somehow, and she wasn't exactly sure when, she fell asleep during the movie. She must have been more tired than she thought, but one moment, she felt her eyes drooping and the next moment, she was asleep. It was when she could feel the bus coming to a slow stop that she slowly regained her consciousness.

And her consciousness had a beating heart right next to it.

Stephanie's eyes widened and she gasped as she pulled away. She looked down and Chris was lying half on the couch, with his feet stretched onto the floor. Somehow she'd snuggled up to him while she slept. She looked at the other couch and all four kids were also asleep. Was there a carbon monoxide leak or something to make them all fall asleep? It was a long night though and once her rational brain came back, she realized they're probably all just fallen asleep.

She wrestled with herself over what to do next. Should she wake Chris up, tell him that they were stopping and he could go back to his own bus? Or should she just lay back down and cuddle up to Chris and then feign innocence when he woke up, like she hadn't woken up. Well, she was going to play the devil tonight and Barbie be damned because she leaned down again and cuddled up to his side, breathing in his scent and wishing she could spend every night like this. Barbie was the luckiest girl in the world because she got to have this. If she could have it for a few moments, she was going to take it and hold on as tight as she could before it was wrenched from her grasp.

She woke up a little bit later to Chris's voice, "Steph?"

She blinked and took a deep breath, "Chris?"

"Oh hey, I guess we fell asleep, huh?" he said, slowly sitting up, which forced Stephanie to sit up as well.

"Sorry, I must have fallen asleep on you," she said, noting the seeping rays of light from beyond the glass.

"It's okay," he said. "I didn't mind."

"Still, it's weird, I mean, you know, weird."

"No, it's not weird, you had already been leaning on me when I tucked the kids in," Chris said and it was then she actually took note that the beds were down and Aurora and Cheyenne were in one and Sierra and Ash in another. "I didn't think it would be too appropriate to take you to bed."

"Yeah, I guess," she said, "so you just let me sleep on you."

"You looked comfortable, I'm sorry, I probably should've just carried you to your bed."

"No, it's fine, really," Stephanie said, "best sleep I've had in a long time."

"Now you're just lying." She knew it wasn't, but she wasn't putting herself out on a limb. "But thanks for the sleepover, I had fun, you have fun?"

"I had fun."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews. I really love this story and I'm really glad everyone else seems to really enjoy it. Hope you like the chapter and if you want to leave a review, it would be much appreciated, thanks and enjoy. :)

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"Hey Chris, I was just wondering if…oh, Barbie, sorry…"

Stephanie had let herself onto Chris's bus to see if he'd wanted to go get some lunch now that the buses had stopped for a short while. They were in the middle of Missouri on their way to Oklahoma for the show a couple nights away. She'd had a craving for some barbeque and their drivers were really very good about choosing places to stop that included restaurants and other distractions they could partake in to break up the monotony of the bus. It did wonders for the kids, who got antsy when they were stuck on the bus for a long time, despite the many activities they had.

Stephanie hadn't been expecting Barbie at all. She hadn't spoken to Chris last night except a few parting words after the show and a promise to see each other later. The show had been a difficult one. The script hadn't been finalized so guys were getting their parts as the show was going on and Chris had had a double match. He'd started with a singles match, which had turned into a tag team match halfway through so it was like having two matches. So they'd just gathered up their kids and headed to their respective mobile homes and made the night a wash. So it was to her surprise when she saw Barbie sitting at a table, coloring with Sierra.

"Stephanie, hey!" Barbie said brightly.

Stephanie had been kidding herself. She'd pushed Barbie out of her mind while she and Chris were off having their little adventure. But she couldn't be completely pushed out of the picture if she was dating Chris. Of course she would show up at some point because she'd want to see the man that she was with and who could blame her? Stephanie had been spending every moment she could with Chris and she wasn't even with him. If she was with Chris, she might not let him out of her sight.

"Hey," she gulped. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm just spending the day here, that's all," Barbie said. "I spent the night last night and I'm going to catch a flight home, I just wanted to see Chris's set-up here."

"I see," she nodded, not really seeing, but pretending to be nice instead of going over and grabbing Barbie by the hair and throwing her out of the bus. She couldn't begrudge this girl though. She'd only gotten to what Stephanie wanted first. That's all. She wasn't a bad person, she was just quicker to the draw.

"If you want Chris, he's in the shower. He didn't get a chance to take one last night," she explained and Stephanie tried not to read too much into that. In fact, she tried not to read _anything_ into that. But did it look like she was smug? "I think everyone was pretty tired."

"Yeah, it was a long night last night."

"I know," Barbie said. "I was even feeling overworked."

Stephanie smiled at that, but it was as false a smile as she could muster. Barbie hadn't done anything on the show last night except to be seen talking backstage. She'd basically stood there. "Yeah, it was a hectic night, that's for sure."

"I know, Chris was talking about it last night before we went to bed," Barbie said. "Just, you know, how everything is really hinging on how well he does and how he wants to make a good…sorry, I'm rambling." She shut her mouth quickly and Stephanie wondered what she was going to say, but she didn't press.

"It's okay."

"You can come in if you want," Barbie said, gesturing around her. "I don't think Chris would mind."

Stephanie realized she was still standing on the steps that led up to the floor and that she was gripping the arm rail a little tighter than she normally would. "I wouldn't want to bug you guys or anything."

"You're not, trust me," Barbie said. "I'm just coloring. You know, it's very relaxing, I never realized how relaxing coloring was. I should do this while I'm traveling, but then, it might look a little odd to see a grown woman walking around with coloring books and crayons with no children around, right?" She laughed, a perky, annoying laugh that was like an ice pick to Stephanie's brain.

Stephanie would dispute the grown woman comment. She was more like a child than a woman. "Yeah, that might seem a little odd."

"Just a little," Barbie laughed, "but seriously, come on in."

"That's okay, my daughters are in my bus playing and I don't want to leave them for too long I was just going to ask if he wanted to go to lunch since I felt like some barbeque, but I don't want to bug you guys or anything."

"Like I said, you're not bugging us," Barbie shook her head. "Really, you're not. I _promise_."

"Okay," she said, just as Chris walked out. He was shirtless and in a pair of jeans and towel-drying his hair. He looked beyond gorgeous, the way there was still this fine sheen of dampness to his body and the smile gracing his face. Barbie glanced at him and smiled briefly before going back to her coloring. Chris saw her and his face lit up considerably. He grinned and walked over to her and she felt her breath stunt as she could smell his body wash, he was that close to her now.

"Hey, Steph, what brings you over here?"

"I was coming to see if you wanted to get some lunch, there's a pretty good-looking barbeque place over there," she said, pointing out the window to a restaurant across the street. Chris ducked a little to look out the window. "But Barbie's here and if I'm interrupting anything, it's not a big deal."

"No, it's cool, Barb, did you want to get lunch?" Chris asked, looking at the other woman.

"Yeah, I can eat," Barbie nodded.

"Sure, we'd love to join you," Chris said. "Let me just put a shirt on and get the kids ready and we'll meet you on your bus, does that sound cool?"

"Yeah, that sounds great," Stephanie, but she was lying through her teeth. She had never eaten with the two of them, but she could just picture them being all cutesy, maybe Barbie fed him or something stupid like that. Wiped his chin if there was something on it. She wasn't too keen on seeing that, hell, she didn't think anyone would want to see that.

"Awesome," Barbie said. "I'll help you with the kids, Chris."

Stephanie did not like the way that rolled off her tongue like that. She suppressed it though, "I'll see you guys in a bit."

"Okay," Chris said and she could feel his eyes follow her as she got off the bus. She walked quickly back to her bus since she'd left the girls and climbed on. Aurora's smile always helped to cheer her up.

"Hey you guys, we're going to go have lunch with Chris, Ash, Sierra, and Cheyenne."

"Yay!" Aurora cheered. She loved her new friends, Stephanie was happy that she had kids her own age to hang out with. They were like three little peas in a pod. She got their coats from the little closet they had in the front and helped them get them on when Chris and Barbie and the kids came on the bus.

"Wow, Stephanie, this is amazing," Barbie said, looking around. "It puts yours to shame, Chris."

Chris shoved her a little, "Thanks, Barb, you're supposed to think _I'm_ the best, remember."

"Yeah, sure," she said, rolling her eyes at Stephanie like they were girlfriends and actually did things like complain about their boyfriends. Stephanie hated the hostility she was starting to feel regarding Barbie. She knew she shouldn't get so worked about this and truly, Barbie had done nothing wrong. Still, the feelings just crept up on her and she couldn't stop them. She wasn't sure she wanted to either. When she was hating Barbie, it gave her someone to blame for being lonely. It was all Barbie's fault for her being single, it was just easier to blame her, even if it was nonsensical.

"Hey!" Chris said, pretending to be offended even further. "Do you see the way she talks to me?"

"I'm only telling the truth, that I don't think of you as the best."

"You suck," Chris told her. "So who's ready for some barbeque?"

"I am," Barbie said, pretending to be jazzed. "Actually, I really am, it'll be a good send-off meal before I head home for a couple of days."

"You're not staying?" Stephanie asked, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice.

"No, unfortunately not," Barbie said. "I've got to get back home and I've got some things I need to do. An old friend of mine is having a baby so I'm going back to Jacksonville for the baby shower. It should be fun, even if I think she's a little young to be having a kid."

"How old is she?" Chris asked.

"Twenty," Barbie said. "I mean, I'm not against having kids young, I just think that she's a little too immature to be having children. I know that I'm not mature and I know I wouldn't want to be pregnant right now, besides, I'd probably get fired…oh, sorry, Stephanie, I didn't mean…"

"I know, it's fine," Stephanie said as they walked to the restaurant. She thought it was weird that Barbie didn't want kids right now. Didn't she realize that the man she was dating had 3 kids, 3 _young_ kids so if she was going to be with Chris for the long haul at the very least she'd have to be a stepmother or stepmother-like person. "You wouldn't be fired if you got pregnant, that's illegal."

"Oh, well good, I guess, not that I plan on having any anytime soon," she laughed and Chris laughed too.

"I should hope not," he told her and Stephanie nearly gagged at the image of them trying to prevent getting pregnant. She was thankful for the hostess showing them to their seats. Stephanie ended up sitting across from Chris, with Aurora next to her in a booster seat and Murphy on her other side in a high chair. Chris was between his daughters and Kelly was on the other side of Sierra, with Ash next to her. Just one, big, cozy table.

"Do you see yourself having more kids, Stephanie?" Barbie asked curiously. "Your girls are beautiful, you'd probably have even more beautiful kids."

Stephanie wished she could blame that on Barbie sucking up, jockeying for position or power, but the girl sounded so genuine. Why did she make it so hard to just hate her? She looked over at Chris and he was staring at her, his chin in his hand, and she felt a little uncomfortable under his intense gaze, but then he smiled and she felt completely at ease. She wondered if he made every girl he looked at feel this same way. She found herself smiling back and Barbie could have been a puff of air for all she knew at the moment.

"Um, well, I've actually always wanted a big family. I once told Paul that I wanted five kids and I guess that thought hasn't changed, I'm only 32 so I think I've got a few more viable years to get pregnant."

"Wow, five kids," Barbie said, "that's a lot of kids! In fact, that's every kid at this table right now. You've got five kids right here!" She laughed and then started blushing a little, looking down and shaking her head, "But kids are cool, I mean, I want them someday, not now, but someday, not five though, but all the more power to you."

"So Steph," Chris said, obviously saving Barbie from whatever embarrassment she was going through right now and Stephanie couldn't quite figure out why Barbie was embarrassed, but she brushed it off. "When is Barbie going to get the Women's Title?"

"Chris!" Barbie cried, embarrassed again and turning to Ash, who was coloring on the kid's menu they'd given each of the kids (Aurora, Sierra, and Cheyenne were busy with theirs and Murphy was chewing on hers). "Don't ask that."

"Why not?" Chris asked. "You should give it to her."

"Don't listen to him," Barbie said, "he's just being a jerk, I'm nowhere near good enough for it, I'd suck as champion."

"I don't think so," Chris said, glancing at her and smiling, but then turning his attention back to Stephanie. "Just consider it, you know."

"Yeah, of course."

"Really, don't listen to him," Barbie said, her face red and obviously burning. "I don't need the title."

This was what Stephanie feared, having to see them interact as a couple and be happy while she was alone and wishing she was with Chris. Her jealousy was two seconds away from showing and she didn't want Barbie to show up for her flight with barbeque in her hair. She just had to make it through lunch with this fake smile and cheery demeanor, just a couple hours and she'd be home free.

And she'd have Chris all to herself again.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews. I really love this story and it seems you guys are too, so yay! Jodi put in a request for this one so I hope that it came out okay. I hope you enjoy the story and leave a review if you feel inclined, thanks. :)

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"So that must have been nice to have Barbie around."

"Huh?" Chris asked, looking up from the book he'd been reading. They were all hanging out on Chris's bus tonight. They liked to alternate where they hung out, letting the kids have a small change of scenery every now and then. The girls were playing with some blocks while Ash looked through some books. Murphy was sleeping, having her one long nap of the day. She was in a portable pen next to Stephanie, who was looking through some paperwork, scripts and ideas jotted down on various papers. Chris was reading a book about some musician.

"Barbie. You know, how she was here yesterday. That must have been nice to see her and everything."

"She wanted to see how the bus was. She liked it, thought it was cool. I don't know why more guys don't do this. I mean, you get to relax and you don't have to drive."

"Well, it is pretty expensive, so I think only the guys who are, you know, more well-off--"

"You mean the main event guys," he interjected.

"Okay, yes, the main event guys," she told him smartly, rolling her eyes at him. "I think they're the ones that can afford it. Are you trying to say that you're going to keep the bus going after Jessica is through taking care of her mother?"

"I don't know, the kids like it, I like it and if I have it, then the kids can come with me more often, you know, and I'd love to have them more often than I do. I think they love traveling with me. I think they like it even more because they have Aurora to play with. They really like her. I can see them being best friends," Chris told her and she smiled at him. She liked that thought.

"I'm glad that Aurora has some kids her own age to play with," she admitted. "We'd love to have you permanently on the road with us, well, the kids I guess would only be here some of the time, but I still think that it would be cool to have you. You could keep me company sometimes."

"You'd like that?" he asked. His stare was a little unnerving and she wondered if he was looking into her eyes and could see the attraction she felt for him. She kept eye contact with him for just a moment, but then broke it and looked off to the side and out the window, watching the flat scenery pass by. It almost felt like one of those cartoons, where the same cactus passed by every five seconds. The landscape was so…the same.

"Well, yeah, of course I would. It gets a little lonely on the road," she told him, turning back to him. "When I was with Paul, I'd have him to talk to, now I only have Phil, my driver, and my daughters, who, as much as I love them, aren't the best conversationalists."

Chris laughed. "I'd like to stick around, I think."

"I'd like you to stick around," she admitted.

"Good, good," he muttered to himself, a small smile on his face, just bright enough to where his teeth were showing. She liked when he smiled like that. It was like he was trying to hold a real smile in, but it couldn't help itself and had to start showing. He really had the best smile she'd ever seen. It always reached his eyes and then he'd look at you and make you feel like his world.

"You think so?"

"Oh, well, yeah, I like spending time with you, you've become an even better friend than you were before."

Even though those words stung her, she kept up her happy face. If she and Chris were just meant to be friends than that was what they were meant to be. It really wasn't _so_ bad being his friend after all. It was better than nothing, she supposed. Sure, the ideal would be dating him, but if she couldn't have that, then friend wasn't a horrible moniker. Sometimes a guy need a girl friend who could help him out when he needed it, especially with girl problems, if Chris had any girl problems, she wasn't sure he did.

"Why do you like Barbie?" she asked before she could catch herself. In any other circumstance, she never would have asked that question. She didn't know whether it was because she didn't want to know why or because she didn't want to make him uncomfortable. He tilted his head to the left slightly, his hair just falling onto his forehead and she resisted the urge to reach forward and brush it out of his face. That wasn't her job. His eyebrows were knitting together now, like they were trying to meet in the middle for some sort of conference to discuss why she had asked that question.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't…I just…"

"Want to know why I like Barbie," he finished for her. "That's an interesting question."

"You don't have to answer it. I was just thinking about her yesterday, how she was here and I don't know, I guess she's not the most popular person backstage, you probably know that though, I'm sure. I mean, not to say that she's hated or anything…" God would her mouth just shut and stay shut? No, it wouldn't and she kept digging a deeper hole and a deeper hole. "She's not hated, I don't think she's hated, I'm sure there are some, but then tons of people hate me as well, I'm sure, you don't have to tell me about them all or anything, I believe you. Just, I guess she doesn't have the best reputation, not to say she has a bad one, not a really bad one anyways."

"She's sweet," Chris said, interrupting her speech and saving her from any further embarrassment. She could already feel the heat of her face and she couldn't even look at Chris right now. Had she just called his girlfriend a slut?

"Yeah, she seems it."

"Nobody gives her credit for anything," Chris continued. "It's actually a little frustrating. Is she the brightest lemon in the barrel? No, she's not, but she knows that and doesn't need the world telling her that, but they continue to do so. She has to go on the internet, hear it backstage that she's a slut, that she's an idiot and do people not get that it's hurtful? I just don't understand people. She's got a really good heart, doesn't that count for anything? Apparently not, but she's trying and nobody ever treats her any differently."

"I'm sorry," Stephanie said quietly. She could see his passion for her right there and it almost made her cringe. Chris felt _something_ for Barbie and it didn't take a deeper look to realize that; everything was right there, on the surface, in the way his hand clenched the book he was still holding, like it would be turned to sawdust any moment, the way his jaw was stone, his top teeth bearing down on the bottom ones. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"I know you didn't," he said, his grip loosening and his jaw relaxing. "It's not you, it's just…other people, you know. I know it's not you."

"You really like her," she said.

"Of course I do," he chuckled, like it was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world and she supposed it was. Of course he liked her, she was his girlfriend and she doubted that he would date someone he didn't like unless it was some weird plot of revenge.

"Yeah, I can tell, I mean, I thought you were going to rip that book into shreds," she tried to make a joke, ease the tension.

"Yeah, well, you know, I get defensive about the people I care about," Chris told her, "so you know, people better watch out if they make fun of you because then I might just have to throw down. I don't think it'd be pretty either."

Something warmed inside her, like someone had put a heating pad all over her skin and it was slowly warming up her insides. "You care about me?"

"Definitely," he said sheepishly. "It's hard not to spend as much time as we've been spending together and not care about you. Like I said, we're friends and I really like being friends with you and I'm intensely protective of my friends, once you're in the inner circle, you're in and there's no getting out, so if anyone wants to treat you like crap, they have me to worry about."

"Thanks," she told him, "that's kind of nice to have in my back pocket. I thought I'd be on my own in a lot of ways with Paul out of my life save for the girls. It's nice to know that I do have friends. When you're going through a divorce, you just feel so all alone and then you have the mutual friends and even though they say they won't choose sides, they end up choosing them anyways."

"Yeah and for some reason, you were never the popular one, but then, I figured that because Jessica is the one who was already around and I was the one always working."

"Yeah, I guess I'm kind of the popular one, but Paul got a lot of friends in the divorce," she joked and Chris laughed. A moment later, Murphy started to stir and wake up, a soft whining cry floating up from her lips. Stephanie got up and walked over, picking up Murphy and bringing her back to where she'd been sitting. Stephanie sat her in her lap and let Murphy wake up at her own pace.

"Speaking of Paul, I remember you said that you wanted to have five children, I don't think I can imagine you with that many kids, was that true?"

"Yeah, I guess I just always wanted a big family, lots of talk and chatter. Shane was seven years older than me so a lot of my childhood and teenage years were just by myself because I was too young for Shane or he was off at college. I guess I decided that I didn't want that for my kids and five seems like a good number so I decided I wanted five children. Probably won't happen anymore, but I don't know, it was a nice idea and Aurora and Murphy are close enough in age to where I think they'll be friends or I hope so."

"I can understand where you're coming from. I was an only child so I had nobody at home to play with," Chris joked. "So I definitely know that feeling of wishing there were somewhere there with you."

"Yeah, so you see."

"But don't say that you won't have that five you wanted, I'm sure that you'll have them."

"Chris, you really think too highly of me. I'm probably really high maintenance or something and a pain and I work too much and some guys just don't want to help raise another man's kids. I think there are actually a lot of guys like that."

"I don't know why anyone wouldn't," he told her. "Your girls are amazing, both of them, I mean, look at that face right there. That is one gorgeous baby. You are incredibly lucky that both your children have turned out to have your features and not your ex-husband's because then I might just be saying they were gorgeous to be polite."

"Thank you," she told him genuinely. "Murphy says thank you as well."

Murphy smiled at Chris. "Well, I'm just telling the truth. Your kids are great and any guy that doesn't want to be a part of your life because they're a part of your life doesn't deserve to be with you at all."

"Again, thank you, I guess I have self-esteem issues right now."

"Which I don't understand either. I mean, you're absolutely one of the prettiest women I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. You're funny, intelligent, you can hold a conversation, you've got everything going for you."

"Chris."

"Sorry," he said, "I just hate seeing you so down on yourself." He cleared his throat and looked at her. "So, you do still want those five kids, huh?"

"It'd be nice, I think," she told him and it would be nice. It didn't go unnoticed by her yesterday that Barbie had pointed out that if she were to be with Chris than she would have those five kids she'd dreamed of so long ago. It didn't matter to her, or wouldn't matter to her rather, if all of those five were hers. She just wanted a house filled with children and if some were hers and some were Chris's it didn't matter to her as long as everyone was happy.

"Would you ever want another, I mean, if you had five children and you were…I don't know, married to a guy and the guy wanted to have children, more children, like a sixth child or something, would you, would you want more? Just hypothetically speaking of course, since you only have 2 right now."

"So if I had the five, would I have more is what you're asking?"

"Yeah, I guess it is," he wondered curiously. "Not that I'm saying it would happen, but what if, would you be mad?"

"No, I don't think so."

"So you wouldn't mind having more than five."

"Nah, I don't think I would mind."

"That's cool," he said nonchalantly.

"Why do you ask?" she inquired.

"Nothing, just wondering."

There was something in tone, but she couldn't quite place it and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Nonetheless, she smiled and laughed, "But fat chance that scenario ever comes up."

"Yeah…fat chance…"


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! I'm glad you're loving the story because I really like it too (which is good since I'm the one who has to finish it). Anyways, I do feel like this story is starting to wind down and I know you're like, "But what, there's only 12 chapters, usually these stories go on forever!" but yes, I feel like this one is coming to a close soon so I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride and if you want to leave a review I won't be mad at you, in fact, I'll be very, very happy! Enjoy. :)

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"Oh my God, Barbie, it's beautiful!"

"Thanks, I really like it."

"Wow, he must really like you," Eve gushed. Stephanie had just turned the corner to walk into this conversation. She could only guess who the person they were talking about was. She sighed and looked over at Barbie, who was showing Eve something. It looked like a necklace. Stephanie bit her lip and pressed her hand to her décolletage where her own necklace rested. This one was given to her by her parents when she was sixteen. She wore it so often that it the finish had started to fade. She hadn't received jewelry in a long time and everything Paul had given to her she'd returned to him to do what he wanted.

"Well, duh," Barbie said with a giggle. Stephanie was about to turn around when Barbie looked off to the side and saw Stephanie. Her face lit up while Stephanie's lit down and before Stephanie could make her quick escape Barbie was bouncing over and when Stephanie said bouncing, she meant _bouncing_. No wonder Chris wanted that. Why would he want someone his own age or around his age when he could have the perky-breasted, bouncy blonde with the killer looks. Yes, Stephanie was bitter, but she'd been caught out and the last place she wanted to be was here with Barbie.

Where before she'd tried to play it nice in her thoughts for the blonde, she could no longer pretend that she liked her; it was impossible. She was just not capable of sustaining that feeling for very long. She should be able to, though, after the impassioned words Chris had said about her the other night. She should have changed her opinion right then and then, been the bigger person and tried to like Barbie for who she was, but she wasn't that strong or that nice. She was bitter and jaded from a divorce and the one man she'd wanted since her husband was taken by something barely out of high school. If this were the porn industry, Barbie would be in those barely legal pornos.

"Hi," Stephanie said, her voice strained.

"Hey, Steph, it's so nice to see you," Barbie said and she was genuine and it sickened Stephanie. Of course the girl would be genuine, she had Chris Irvine, what did she ever have to be bitter or upset about?

"Yeah, you too." At least Stephanie was managing to keep it together right now. Maybe it was for Chris. Maybe it was because she knew that Chris cared about this woman and she cared about Chris so she would have to treat his girlfriend nicely.

"I was just showing Eve what Chris got me for my birthday," Barbie grinned, holding up her necklace. "It's a blue topaz."

Stephanie looked down at the necklace. It was cute. The topaz was in a teardrop shape on a silver or platinum chain, she couldn't tell. Barbie let it fall against her chest again and Chris was smart enough to get it short enough to where it didn't get completely lost in Barbie's cleavage. Chris had good taste in jewelry. It was subtle and classic, not at all garish. She'd kind of expected him to like garishness (it would explain the entire dating Barbie thing), but it was nice to see he wasn't like that at all.

"It's really pretty."

"Thanks, I love it," she said, looking down at it again. "He took me out to dinner last night and gave it to me. He was bummed that I couldn't go home to see my family so he took me out to dinner for my birthday, just us. It was fun, we called my parents while we were there."

Leave it to Chris to do something sweet for her on the road. She was finding that Chris did that a lot. One night, Murphy had been especially cranky and apparently was in hate with Stephanie. She suspected that Murphy had just wanted Paul. Chris had taken her and walked around in the dark in the middle of nowhere with Murphy until she fell asleep. It had been the middle of the night too. She'd tried walking Murphy around herself and Chris had heard the crying from his bus and he'd stepped outside and offered to take her from the weary Stephanie. She must have looked a mess because about ten minutes before Chris had shown up, she'd started crying out of frustration as well.

But then Chris was like her knight in shining armor, coming in and saving the day. She hadn't meant to spy on them, hadn't intended to listen, but she could hear Chris talking to Murphy as he walked around. Words of comfort and telling her how beautiful she was and she couldn't help but feel jealous. Murphy had been so quick to sleep so maybe she just needed stronger arms to hold her. Chris had gently handed the little girl back over to Stephanie and smiled at her as she thanked him profusely in a hushed voice. He'd told her it was no problem, that he was glad he was there and then disappeared to go get some much-needed rest. She'd stood there with Murphy for a few minutes, just in awe of that man. It was those little things that made her ache.

"That sounds like fun."

"It really was," Barbie said and if Stephanie wasn't mistaken, it sounded dreamy, like they'd had some hot, steamy night together and Barbie was recalling all the details of Chris's delicious body. His new tights left so little to the imagination.

"I'm glad for you."

"Thanks," she said. "I'm going to go find him and thank him again!"

"You do that," Stephanie said with a sigh. At least she'd get to see Chris tonight when they were on the road again. It was almost like they were in their own world, like the rest of the company ceased to exist. She almost wanted to declare it a family, but she wasn't so delusional that she actually believed that it was despite the fact they traveled together, ate together, hung out together. She knew that she gave Chris respite from dealing with three small children and that he did the same for her. They kept each other sane, but they were not a family. They were just friends traveling together because of business.

Their night was like any other. They took care of the things at the show and they retired to one bus until they pulled over, either for the night or for a pit stop and then they would go to bed or they'd put the kids to bed and they would hang out together and talk. She liked those nights the best, where they would just talk about everything under the sun except their loves lives. It was like those were off-limits and she was grateful for the small break from having to hear anything about Barbie. Sometimes they did talk about their exes and how the divorces had been, but otherwise, it was just about life and themselves in general. She'd learned that Chris tried his first real wrestling move when he was 12 with one of his best friends and he'd landed on his head but was too afraid to tell his mother so he said he'd fallen out of a tree to cover it up. She told him about the time she'd tried to run away when she was eight because her parents had tried to make her eat spinach. Just silly things like that, but she was starting to feel like she knew Chris better than she had ever known Paul in the whole of their marriage.

Stephanie was lying in bed reading a book when the knock came to the door. They'd been parked for the night for about a half hour. She looked at the clock and it read 4:03. She hadn't been tired tonight and that's why she was still up at such a late hour. She'd probably be paying for it in the morning. Murphy was still a pretty early riser, but the girls had gone to bed relatively late so maybe they'd waked up late. Sometimes, after the show she had so much adrenaline kicking around her system that she found it hard to sleep and so she just…didn't. She walked to the door, knowing who it was before she answered it. He was smiling and she could only see him illuminated by the moonlight so his smile seemed to glow in the moonlight.

"Hey," he whispered. "I saw the light on in the back of your bus and thought you might be up."

"You were looking?"

"I just happened to see, come out here," he said, making a grab for her hand.

"Chris, it's late, why aren't you asleep?"

"Couldn't, not when the sky looks like it does."

"It's just the sky," she reasoned.

"Oh no, you're a city girl, you don't really know what the sky is like? Don't you ever look up?" he asked her. "I mean, you know, ever really look up and just watch the stars?"

"No," she said. "I don't have time for that."

"That's stupid," he said. "Since you were up and there isn't possibly anything you could be doing right now that it in any way fun, come out here and watch the sky with me. I want you to. I even set up some chairs."

She looked past him and indeed there were two lawn chairs a short ways away, just sitting there. She looked around the space. "Chris, it's really late, it's probably not safe, you know there could be weirdoes lurking around pit stops."

"I'll protect you, I promise," he told her, tugging at her hand. She hadn't even noticed him slip his own into hers. She stared down at it, the way his hand gripped hers, his fingers curling around her own, the way they fit together so nicely. "There isn't even anyone here except truck drivers who are probably asleep."

"I guess you're right," she sighed, knowing she'd go anywhere with him as long as their hands were clasped like they were. She slipped on the shoes she kept by the door and grabbed a jacket off the hook by the door and let go of Chris's hand to put it on. She walked down the steps and outside. Chris sat in one chair and pulled the other chair closer to him. She sat down and noticed how close they were. Chris leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky. She just stared at him.

He looked over at her and laughed, "Stephanie, look up!"

"Okay, okay," she said, looking up at the sky. He was right. It was so big and so vast. It was nothing like it was at home. "It's beautiful."

"I told you," he said. "I love looking at the sky like this. I used to do it when I was at home. I'm not going to go cliché and say I thought about how I was going to be a famous wrestler or rock star or anything. I think it's just space that fascinated me. I mean, think about it, we can see all these places in space and we can never go there. There are stars I'll never see, planets I'll never stand on, aliens who will never know how cool I am. It makes you feel small, but still, special because we get to see all these things, even if we can never touch them."

"That's really nice," she told him, still staring up. "I like that sentiment, that even though we're still small, we still matter."

"Of course we matter. Everyone, in their own way matters to someone."

"Like you matter to Barbie?"

"I guess, yeah," he said. "But like you matter to Murphy and Aurora…you matter to them, you're their mommy, you know. I matter to my kids. We all matter. We're all part of this universe and no matter how big or how small, we were part of it."

"Do you think that people in the old days, like medieval times and stuff. Do you think they thought about this stuff? I mean, they thought the world revolved around them, that the universe was them and everything else?"

"There had to be the dreamers, Galileo, all those other guys, they looked up and liked what they saw."

"It's beautiful, I don't blame them. Too bad the sun will rise soon and spread its color across the sky."

"That's beautiful too," he told her. "You know, I've really had fun with you, Stephanie, on this road trip. I don't know, I mean, we were friends before, but I think I can call you one of my best friends now and I like that. I like the way that fits on you."

"Thanks," she said, entering the friend zone, the point of no return. She looked over at him and he was staring at her intently. She went back to staring at the sky so she didn't blush. "You're one of my best friends too."

"You know what bugs me though? Like really, really bugs me?" She expected him to say something Barbie-related, breaking the silent agreement they'd had of not bringing her up. She only thought this because it was the same tone he'd used when he was speaking of Barbie before and how nobody understood her.

"I don't know," she told him.

"That you don't know how gorgeous you are."

Stephanie spun her head towards him and stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"I hate how you think you're high maintenance and how you think that no guy is ever going to want you again, like you're damaged goods or something," he said and God, it _was_ the same tone he'd used for Barbie. She didn't even know what to say, didn't know if she should break into his rant. "Do you even know how many guys would want you?"

"Chris…" She was at a loss for words.

"You are so beautiful," he told her. "Inside and out. Everything about you is beautiful. You are…one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life…"

She was speechless. Words were no longer a part of her repertoire. She just sat there, sat there looking at him like he was crazy and she was sane or maybe it was the other way around, she was crazy and he was sane. Maybe she'd fallen asleep. Yes, maybe she was asleep right now in her own bed and well, it was very late, maybe she'd dozed off while looking at the stars because surely this wasn't real. Surely he couldn't be saying these things.

And surely he wasn't leaning forward.

He brushed some of her hair away from her face, the strands that had come loose from her ponytail and then his chair was almost impossibly close and his face even closer. He was leaning in and she was sitting there, wondering if she _was_ dreaming. Then his lips brushed hers, tentatively and then a little more brave, they pressed into hers and her eyes widened before they closed instinctively and she could feel how soft his lips felt pressing into her own. God, they were even better than she thought. The only other times they'd been pressed to her lips, they'd been so forceful, but this was almost hesitant. Why would he be so hesitant? Oh God, he knew he shouldn't be doing this.

She pulled away and started muttering, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."

Chris looked at her and backed away a little. "I'm so sorry! I'm..I'm so sorry."

"No, no, I am, God, I'm…" She got up and she bolted for her trailer, leaving him there.

She slammed the door closed behind her and rushed into her room. The one thing she'd wanted and once again Barbie was in the way. She wasn't going to be that person, the one who stole a man. She couldn't be, that wasn't her. She wasn't going to do that to someone, not even Barbie, that insipid twit, no, not even her.

Looks like she'd be crying herself to sleep tonight.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: I know you were all frustrated with the last chapter, I'm sorry (not really, hee)! Anyways, here's the next one and I'm suspecting the last one to be the next chapter. I have loved the reviews for this one and I hope to get some more (hint hint :P). Anyways, I do hope you enjoy and speaking of enjoying, posted a new one-shot, Telephone, co-written with StephanieIrvine (Jodi), go tell us how you think we did writing together, we'll love you forever! Enjoy! :)

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She didn't even really get to enjoy the kiss.

That might have been the greatest injustice of it all. She finally gets the one thing she wants, a real kiss from Chris, real interest from him and when he does, she can't even enjoy it because of all the implications and complications in front of her. It had been too brief to really enjoy. She had been too shocked to commit the feeling to memory. Too fast and then it was gone, she'd pulled away and she couldn't recall now, even hours later how his lips had felt. She knew they were soft, they were so soft, but beyond that, what beyond that? She even tried to piece together what had happened before the kiss, after it, but it was all jumbling together in one hodge-podge of feeling and sound and everything was so messed up now.

She'd seen him leaning in and she'd just sat there, stupefied. Her face probably looked horrified or worse. Then his lips and she couldn't even take it all in. She leaned back on her pillows and closed her eyes, seeing him lean in again and she sighed. She'd been trying for two hours to get to sleep, but it wasn't coming. The sun was starting to stream its way through her blinds and if she didn't get some sleep soon, even just a tiny bit, she was going to be dead on her feet and with two active girls she had to take care of, she would not be a pretty sight. She turned on her side, away from the window and closed her eyes.

She was thankful Chris hadn't come after her. She couldn't face him right now. She was humiliated and he must feel horrible. She didn't think he was the type to cheat, everything she knew about him, all the talks they'd had over the past few weeks had given her a clear indication of who he was and he was not a cheater. He was probably tired, drunk, or maybe he had just gone temporarily insane. Either way, it didn't matter because what they'd done was wrong and in the end, she had to be glad she didn't savor his kiss because it was wrong. She committed this to memory and then closed her eyes and willed sleep to come.

She only got a few hours sleep before the day fully broke and she was needed by her daughters and then by the show. She was glad it was a show day. She and Chris couldn't hang out on show days. They had their own responsibilities and things to do and she was grateful for the reprieve. If they didn't have a show today, there'd be no escaping him. He would be on the other bus and they'd both stop in the same places and she'd have to get off and stretch her legs and he'd be right there and she couldn't handle that at the moment.

"Mommy, when get play with my friends?" Aurora asked her as she was sitting in her office trying to read some paperwork. The lines had been blurring together due to her lack of sleep and she'd tried to concentrate, but found it hard. Her mind kept going back to last night and how everything was going to play out now. Everything was different and they couldn't go back. She regretted that kiss. It never should have happened because it had thrown her life off-balance and now it was going to affect her daughters.

"We can't tonight, sweetie," Stephanie told her gently as Aurora pouted from the spot where she was playing. She'd really liked having kids her own age to play with. It got tiring playing with her baby sister and her mother all the time.

"Why?"

"Cause I'm very busy."

"Can see Grandpa?" Maybe they could at least go see their grandpa. He usually had candy for them and that was always a treat.

"I guess you can," Stephanie said with a slight nod. "Come on, we'll go see him, okay?"

"Okay!" Aurora said enthusiastically as she stood up.

Stephanie was actually glad to be getting them off her hands. It was hard for her to keep her mind still and that wasn't a quality one wanted when dealing with small children. She could also feel a headache coming on and the last thing she needed was her daughters screaming and crying and Aurora running around. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples and went to pick up Murphy from her playpen. She took Aurora's hand and together they walked to her father's office for the evening. She was careful to look around and make sure she didn't run into Chris. She managed to get to her father's office where he was happy to take the girls and she was happy to give them.

While she was walking back to her own office (where she would lock the door and bury herself in paperwork until it was time to leave) she turned the corner and saw Chris. She gasped, ducking behind the wall and then peeking around it to make sure he hadn't seen her. A few people were giving her strange looks, but because she was boss, they said nothing and went about their own business. Chris was leaning against the wall and she could make out the slim form of Barbie in front of him. They appeared to be talking and she quickly ran across the hallway to the other side so she could see Barbie more clearly.

She tried to read the blonde's facial expression, but she appeared deep in thought or maybe shallow in thought, she wasn't sure Barbie had had a deep thought in her entire life. She shook her head, now she was just being spiteful to be spiteful. She looked again and Barbie was smiling. She didn't look upset so maybe Chris hadn't told her. All things considered, the kiss had probably lasted two seconds before they'd gained their senses, at least she had, and pulled away. It wasn't even worth noting probably. There was no reason they should have guilty consciences. She heard a squealing sound and looked around the corner again and saw Barbie hugging Chris, a huge grin on her face.

She sighed. Maybe Chris felt guilty for what had happened and now he was going to take Barbie on a trip, or worse, invite her to stay on the bus with him. If she was there all the time, he wouldn't have any reason to be around her and he would have Barbie with him to…satisfy his needs or whatever. Then he wouldn't have to deal with her and he wouldn't want to kiss her again because he was lonely. That was probably it; he was just lonely and needed someone and she had been there. Now he could have Barbie wherever he wanted and that would be it. She'd just driven him further into her arms. She was so good at driving people away.

She circumvented where they were, taking another hallway in this labyrinth until she came to her office and closed the door, effectively closing off the world. Now that she knew the truth, had accepted it and moved on from it (or at least she thought) the work became a tiny bit easier. She poured herself over documents, where things made sense, where facts were facts and what was on the page was taken at face value. Nobody in her life could really be taken at face value anymore. People changed right before your eyes. Papers and words didn't change. They sat there, stagnant and comforting.

The rest of her night went smoothly and nobody bothered her. She counted it as a small miracle as usually her door would be coming off the hinges with people wanting to ask her questions or complain about something, but maybe, just maybe they'd all read her vibe, kept away from her, sensed her mood and just stayed out of her way. She wasn't sure what it was, but by the time her father returned the girls, they were both asleep in his arms. He offered to walk her to her bus and she packed up her things, telling her father that she could handle it if he could just handle the girls. Normally she would handle everything by herself, but her father offered her a little protection tonight. If he were here, the likelihood that Chris would come over and discuss anything with her were slim to none.

After getting the girls to bed she said goodnight to her father and boarded the bus, closing and locking the door behind her. She sighed and sat down on the couch, leaning her head against the back of it and closing her eyes. She could probably fall asleep here if she weren't careful. She was exhausted from the night before and avoiding Chris was like a job in and of itself. Everything was hard right now and her bed seemed so soft and inviting. She pushed herself up and forced herself to trudge to the bedroom. She was no more than two steps away when there was a knock on her bus door. Thinking it was her father, she went and opened it, but was surprised and nervous to find Chris there.

He was standing in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, his hands shoved in his pockets as he kicked at a rock with his shoe. Then he looked up at her and gave her a soft, almost hesitant smile. "Hey, Steph."

"Chris," she breathed.

"Look, I know you've been avoiding me all night, but I was hoping we could talk," he said, looking at her imploringly. He looked uncomfortable and she knew she felt uncomfortable, but they had to get it out of their systems at some point and better now than letting it stew in their own guilt.

She glanced over her shoulder and made sure both girls were sleeping before she stepped down the steps and outside. The parking lot was deserted save for them and she wrapped her arms around her to fight off the breeze blowing in from the side. "I just didn't know what to say," she told him, giving him a pathetic excuse for avoiding him.

He nodded, "I understand," he said, taking a deep breath. "I'm sorry I kissed you."

"It's okay," she said, shaking her head. "You just lost your mind for a bit there, it's not a big deal."

"No, I don't think I did," he chuckled humorlessly. "I just, I'm really sorry. I guess…I don't know, I guess I got my signals all wrong. I just figured, well, God, I don't even know how to put this without sounding like an idiot for doing what I did. I mean, obviously you weren't ready for me to kiss you, but I don't know, spending all this time with you, I just, I guess I just thought that we were leading somewhere, you know."

"What? No, I don't know," she said, her face pinching. She had not understood a word of what he'd just said.

"Sorry, I just, I don't know, I thought you were attracted to me, I mean, you were giving me signals…or so I thought, that maybe…you wanted more," Chris said. "I realize now that you weren't and god, what was I thinking, right? I mean, you _just_ got divorced and you've told me how hard it was for you and I go and kiss you. I just thought you wanted more…"

She didn't understand what was going on, "Is that what you think? You think that's why I pulled away?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, I get that it's going to take time for you to get over your divorce. Hell, maybe you're just not attracted to me, but it wasn't the vibe I was getting. I guess…I guess my instincts were wrong. You didn't want to kiss me and that's fine, you know," he shrugged. "I just wanted to apologize for surprising you like I did. I shouldn't have just kissed you like that or set that entire thing up like that."

"You set that up?"

"Well, yeah, I did, I was kind of going for romantic, but it's a little hard to do that at a truck stop."

"Chris, you can't kiss me."

"I'm sorry, I know, I shouldn't-"

"You're with Barbie," she told him. "You're with her and you…did you really expect me to not know about that and then have you kiss me? Did you want me on the side or something? Barbie during the shows, me in between?" She was getting a bit angry now. Did he want to have his cake and eat it too?

"Stephanie…do you think…do you think I'm dating Barbie?"

"Aren't you?" Stephanie asked. "Did you break up?"

Chris started laughing, "Steph, I'm not dating Barbie!"

"You're…not?" she asked, shaking her head a little in confusion.

"No!" he laughed, "Stephanie, she's my cousin! You didn't know that?"

"Should I have?"

"Well, almost everyone does or at least the divas do, but I thought you talked to them," Chris said. "Maybe you don't, God…no, I'm not dating her, I've known her since she was 5, my God, date her!"

"I thought…"

"Well, she's my cousin by marriage. Her mother is my stepmother's sister, so she's my step-cousin, but I've known her since she was a kid so I just call her my cousin. We hang out a lot because she's been having some problems with one of the wrestlers, won't name names, but he's been pursuing her pretty hard and it bugs her and if she hangs with me, this guy, who is not a main-eventer, stops bugging her."

"So the necklace, the birthday dinner…"

"I gave her a necklace because I love her, she's family and we were on the road and I was the only one in our family who could be there for her," Chris told her.

"Spending the night on your bus…"

"She took the bed, I shared with Ash. He wasn't too happy about that, but I think I got the bum end of the deal because he kicked me all night."

"But what about that picture of you kissing?" Stephanie asked.

Chris shook his head and rolled his eyes heavenward. "My family has always been the touchy-feely kind and that includes kissing on the lips in greeting or in other situations. It's just a thing with my crazy family. That kiss was one of those. It meant nothing to either one of us, but it's like, what does it matter, the people who know us know the truth…well, I thought they did."

"So you're not with her?" Stephanie asked slowly, hope blossoming in her stomach.

"No, did you not hear the aforementioned 5 thing? I can't look at her without seeing her as this little girl who said she wanted to be a professional cheerleader. I get defensive about her because people don't know her. They jus assume the worst about her, but she's not like that. Is she the brightest lemon in the barrel, no, she's not, but she's a good kid and she doesn't deserve the flak she gets around here. Sorry, I just get so mad at people who call her names."

"I understand," she said. She felt bad because she had been one of those people. Maybe she hadn't said any of that to her face, but she'd certainly thought it. "So when you kissed me…"

"Oh, so it's confession time, eh?" he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked up and looked around, but there was nothing left to see except empty parking lot. He eventually focused on a spot that was just over her shoulder, avoiding her eyes. "I've had a crush on you pretty much the entire time I've known you. Not a creepy, weird crush, just well, you know, a crush, slight attraction. When I first met you, God, you were beautiful and smart and witty. I was engaged though and well, I mean, I thought I was…I _was_ in love with Jessica, but you were beautiful and it was just…there. I had thoughts…but I married her and I don't regret it, I got three amazing kids out of the deal. Working with you though, I just, I don't see how anyone can dislike you if they know you. Then you married Paul and well, we both had kids and everything and it was just, you know, _life_. Then I got divorced and you got divorced and I thought, wow, could this really be the time and well…I mean, I thought I'd take the chance. I've always wanted…well, I've always wanted to be with you, see what it was like because I've thought we could be great together."

"You thought we'd be good together?" she asked, a small smile creeping to her lips. He'd wanted to kiss her, he'd wanted _her_. He'd had a crush on her since they met? How could she not smile even just a little?

"Considering how well we've worked together, yeah," Chris said, "then these past few weeks, really getting to know you better, everything we've talked about, spending time with you, with your kids. Our kids getting along amazingly, everything just kind of clicked and I thought…I thought maybe you might like me back. I'm sorry I kissed you, Steph. I just thought it was the right time and I understand if you need time, divorce is hard and long and it takes time…but maybe, when you're ready you might…" He shifted his feet again and cleared his throat. "Well, maybe you might consider giving me a chance."

Her face lit up and she bit her lip. She took a step forward and hugged him tightly. He was surprised, she could feel it in the way his body tensed up, but then eased when she pulled herself closer. She felt his arms band around her waist and his cheek against her shoulder and in the still of the parking lot, under the streetlamps glowing orangey-yellow above them she could hear him sigh.

"I like you," she whispered into his ear as they hugged. "I like you so much."

Chris pulled away and looked at her, "You do? But you pulled away…"

"Because I thought you were with Barbie and I didn't want to cause a break-up, that's the _only_ reason I did that because…I thought I'd lost my chance. I was…I was going to ask you out and I don't do that often or…ever, but I was," she said, "then I thought you two were together and I backed off."

Chris grinned, "I want to take you out."

"Right now?"

"Okay, maybe not right now, but tomorrow," he told her. "I want to take you out tomorrow. We'll grab the kids, we'll do something family-friendly…you're okay with the kids situation, right? I may have been a bit obvious when I asked about that."

"I didn't even pick up on that and I have no problem with your kids, I love them," she said, pulling away a little. "We'd love to hang out with you tomorrow."

"Great," he nodded. "You won't regret this, Steph."

"I'm not, believe me," Stephanie said, laughing. "I've wanted this for a while."

He didn't seem to be able to handle this well because his face looked like it was about to explode from that smile. "Awesome, well, um, maybe we should say goodnight?"

"I guess we should," she said, though she didn't want to. She could stand here all night, but that probably wasn't a great idea as they were in a parking lot and they had places they needed to be, a schedule to keep.

"If I kiss you, will you pull away?" he joked.

"Let's find out," she said, leaning in and kissing him.

This time, she had time to savor. This time she took in every moment, every second and committed it to her memory banks. She memorized the way he pulled her in even closer, the tilt of their heads, the way their noses just grazed each other, his lips pressing firmly into hers, the way his tongue felt rough and soft at the same time, how his hands came up to tangle in her hair and then how one moved down her back and around her waist. All of it, she wanted to remember all of it. When they pulled away, he looked in awe and she pecked him on the lips.

"Wow, okay, so that was good," he muttered.

"I always leave them wanting more," she winked.

"How Paul wanted to give you up, I will never figure out," he said, shaking his head.

"Or Jessica with you," she told him back. He shrugged. "We better get back inside so we can leave."

"Yeah, you're right, but we'll see each other tomorrow."

"You most certainly will," she said flirtily and he seemed to appreciate that. "Goodnight, Chris."

"Night, Steph," he said, starting to walk away, but then he turned, ran over and kissed her again, just briefly. "I needed one to get me through the night."

She laughed, "Good_night_, Chris."

"Night," he laughed, "oh, and Steph?"

"Huh?"

"Thanks for giving me a chance."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I want to thank everyone for their kind, kind reviews for this story. It's been a crazy, crazy ride, but all good rides have to come to an end. I'll admit, I'm not entirely pleased with this ending, I probably should've ended it with the last chapter, but I forged ahead and so this is the final chapter. I'm glad you all have enjoyed the story as much I've enjoyed writing the story. Hope you'll come around and read some of my other stories. If you feel so inclined, review, enjoy! :)

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Barbie was perhaps, behind Chris and Stephanie, the happiest person after they started dating.

Stephanie still laughed at the memory of it. Her and Chris telling Barbie that they were dating and the blonde girl throwing her arms around the both of them, gushing about how happy she was and how Chris talked about Stephanie _all_ the time and how hard it was to keep the secret. She'd almost let it slip a few times and she was glad to not have to deal with secret any longer, now that it was out in the open. Barbie practically beamed at Chris and Stephanie felt like she wasn't in on the joke. Afterwards, Barbie no longer became a nuisance, this girl who had something Stephanie wanted and when she got to know her, she found that she wasn't so bad after all.

"You know, he's totally in love with you, right?" Barbie told her one time they were going out to lunch. Stephanie had taken on a big sister like role to mirror Chris's big brother role.

"Excuse me?" Stephanie asked, laughing as she looked over at Barbie.

"He's in love with you, he _has_ said it, right?" Barbie told her.

"Barb, we've only been dating a few months, we're both fresh off divorce, I think we want to take it rather slow so he hasn't said he loves me yet."

"He's an idiot then," Barbie said, shaking her head. "He should just tell you already because it's so obvious."

"I think we're going to wait a little longer before we say that to each other, if he even feels that."

"Are you kidding me?" Barbie said. "He feels that for you and more. Don't you love him? I mean, I know I shouldn't ask, I'm always being told that I pry too much and that I'm too nosy. That's probably why you-know-who wouldn't stop bugging me."

Stephanie now knew who she was referring to and why Chris had felt so protective over Barbie. She'd been harassed for a while by Mike Mizanin, who couldn't take the hint that Barbie was not interested. Stephanie had made sure to put Miz on the other show in order to get him away from Barbie and Chris had been so grateful towards her that he'd taken her out to a special dinner. He was just a guy who liked to protect the people he cared about.

"I don't know," Stephanie answered honestly, contemplating the question. "I mean, I enjoy hanging out with him and dating him and he's so good to my girls, you know. Even Paul, who I thought would hate the entire idea of me dating because he wanted us back together doesn't seem to have a huge problem, which is weird, but I guess he's finally getting the picture, you know."

Barbie laughed, "It's probably because he knows that he can't compete with Chris."

Stephanie laughed as well. "I don't know, Paul has always thought highly of himself."

"Do you love being with Chris though?"

Stephanie had to admit, being around Chris made her feel so good. When he was around, she felt beautiful, it was strange. She had people tell her she was beautiful all the time, her family, her friends, her fans, people were telling her she was beautiful, but Chris, he didn't even have to say the words, she just _felt_ beautiful around him. It was in the way he looked at her or the way he laced their hands together when she wasn't paying attention or the kisses to her temple when they were watching their kids be goofballs.

"Yeah, I love being with Chris," she finally answered.

"Then you're totally in love with him too," Barbie gushed. "You guys should just tell each other already instead of dragging it out and acting like you don't. What point does that really serve anyways?"

"It's more complicated than that, Barb?" Stephanie said.

"What, because you've both been burned before?" Barbie asked. "Stephanie, do you know why I've never met Chris's kids? I mean, didn't you wonder, me being his cousin, him being around me and all, did you ever wonder why they haven't even met me?"

Stephanie actually had never wondered, but now that she thought about it, it was a little strange, "Okay, why?"

"Well, I'd met them when the girls were just babies, tiny, little things and when Ash was too young to remember me. Jessica didn't like me. She thought I would be a bad influence and she told Chris that I wasn't allowed to see the kids. Now that they're divorced, I'm allowed to see them because that bitch can't control them all anymore. She's a power-hungry freak."

Stephanie laughed.

"You think I'm joking!" Barbie said, "Yet, I'm really not. Look, I know I've…I know that people talk and I know that some of the things they say are true. I'm not proud of things I've done, but not a lot of people have their early 20's up for grabs. All I'm saying is that everything is complicated in some way and if you don't make things uncomplicated, then you're just wasting time."

Stephanie was actually surprised as the astuteness that Barbie was displaying. Everyone painted her for this ignorant slut. Hell, Stephanie herself had thought of her in those terms before Chris had defended her and even after that, she still had her reservations about the mental capacity of the blonde. She was growing up though, maturing and it was obvious to Stephanie as it must have been obvious to Chris.

"I didn't know you had it in you, Barb."

"It's easier playing the idiot, less expectations," Barbie shrugged and Stephanie was actually shocked by the revelation. "Don't be so surprised, Stephanie. This business is way too superficial to be surprised over this."

"So you think I should talk to Chris and tell him I love him."

"I think you should just tell him the truth is all."

Stephanie was about to answer, but Barbie's eyes lit up at something behind her and Stephanie turned to see Chris coming over to them. The conversation had been dropped, but it had stuck in her mind for a few days before she thought to talk to him about it. The girls were with Paul this weekend and Chris's kids were with Jessica, which left the two of them alone. Chris had been straddling the line between Connecticut and Florida and had been trying to convince Jessica to move closer to Connecticut (or into Connecticut) so that he could be closer to Stephanie. She thought it sweet that he wanted to be close to her.

"So the whole weekend to ourselves," Chris said, nuzzling his face into her neck. "We've been dating for three months, more than three months and I think this is the first real time that we can be alone together. There's no my kids, no your kids, your ex-husband isn't skulking around…"

Stephanie giggled as he pressed a chaste kiss to her neck. "Whatever will we do with ourselves when we don't have to go to the zoo or the park?"

"I have an idea," he said, laughing at her squeal as he pulled her into his lap. "We could spend the entire weekend in bed. We will only answer the phone for our kids and nobody else, how does that sound?"

"Lovely," she said, turning his head towards hers so she can capture his lips in a real kiss. He loves to kiss her, she's found out. He does it at the most unexpected times. Sometimes, at a show, they'll be walking down the hall and he'll stop her and kiss her. He always has to have one before he goes out there for a match or promo and always needs one when he's done. She loves when her lip gloss gets on his lips and he has to rub them furiously right before he disappears through the curtain. It's just a little way of claiming him that nobody can really tell.

"Good, do you want to go away maybe?" he asked.

"Away where?"

"I don't know, anywhere," he said, excited by the possibility. "The world is our oyster for the weekend. No kids, I don't have shows because my lovely girlfriend was kind enough to look at our schedules and want me all to herself. We could go anywhere, Ohio, Montana, New Mexico, California, Hawaii, Alaska, China, Egypt, I don't care, anywhere!"

"You are way too enthusiastic for your own good."

"I'm sorry, I just think it's great to finally get some alone time with you," Chris said, hugging her around the shoulders. "I love my kids, I love your kids, but sometimes, I'm going to need time alone with you."

"You know, if this things gets more serious between us, they're probably going to be around for a while," she joked. "A whole lot of the while since I have physical custody of Aurora and Murphy and you get your kids quite a bit and if Jessica agrees-"

"That's what I wanted to tell you," he bounced in his seat. "She's going to move to White Plains, in New York. She's been wanting to move North because of her mom, being close to her and everything and she said that this works because her Mom can move in with her and she can help take care of her because she's been sick and everything. It's only about ten miles from Greenwich and so I'm going to buy a house. I know that we aren't ready for moving in or anything so I thought getting my own house would be best for now."

She nodded and hugged him, "I can't believe you're willing to move your entire family for me."

"Well, I mean, it all worked out and I know we see each other all the time at work, but…well, look…these last few months have been so great. Once we got past that entire, 'you're dating Barbie!' fiasco, I like to think that we've been…wow, right, we've been pretty wow?"

She liked the way he described them. Yes, it had been pretty wow. Chris was pretty wow when he wanted to be. She wasn't one for huge romantic gestures, but Chris was one for very small romantic gestures, cooking her dinner when she was especially tired. Getting her favorite ice cream when she was feeling upset over some insignificant thing, holding her extra long in the mornings when she was exhausted from work and kids, all of these things were pretty wow of him and made her fall for him that much more.

"We've definitely been wow."

He beamed. "Good, because I want to make you stay with me forever."

"Chris, you're not…" She looked at him wide-eyed.

He looked at her for a moment, confused, then went over his words, "Oh my God, no, no, no, I'm not, no, not…no, I'm not asking _that_ question or anything."

"Oh thank God," she said, "I'm not really ready to hear it."

"I'm not really ready to ask it," he told her, kissing her. "I mean, you know, in the future, I can very much see it happening, _in the future_, but right now, I'm just…I'd like…I like the way things are going right now. I was right when I thought we'd be good together, we _are_ good together and I like that and I want to build on that."

"Sounds like a nice idea," she told him. "So Barbie was talking to me the other day…"

"Okay…"

"And well, she was saying that…she was saying some stuff," Stephanie said. "I just…I've been thinking about what she said and I really think she's right, at least what she was saying about me."

"What was she saying about you?" he wondered.

"I've always felt something with you, Chris. Before we were even together, when we were friends, hell, before all of this, the families, the marriages, well, my marriage, before it all, I guess there was something that was there for me."

"And now you've realized that there's nothing there?" he kidded, raising his eyebrow and she leaned against him.

"I guess, I guess I just haven't been identifying my feelings correctly but Barbie of all people has made me see the light."

"Oh, the light," he said, mock seriously, this could be scary. "What did the light tell you?"

"The light tells me that I'm in love with you and that I wanted to tell you that I was in love with you," she told him and his eyes lit up like stars twinkling first in the just after sunset sky. "So there, I've said it, it's out there, I love you."

"I love you too," he said immediately.

"Ahh, so Barbie is really just a sage then," Stephanie laughed, "because she was pretty sure that you were in love with me too."

"I've got to get her to shut her mouth sometimes. She shouldn't be the one telling you, I should be the one telling you."

"You are now," she told him, kissing him and pulling him over her a little. "So you and me this weekend then?"

"You and me forever, how does that sound?"

"Don't become a sap on me," Stephanie said, standing up and then pulling him up. "Come on, I've got some things to do before we can embark on his weekend of love."

"I like the sound of that."

She laughed and looked over her shoulder. Chris followed her obediently and she waited until they were side by side before she hugged him around the waist as they walked. She hadn't wasted the opportunity after all. She had just had to wait for it to arise. She'd thought it would be simple, ask him out, but this way was better. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right moment for things to happen and she'd been patient and when the time was right, there he was. Their future would be the same, she was sure. There would be so many more opportunities for different things, for different moments and when the time was right, they would take those moments for themselves.

After all, you've got to seize things when you can.

THE END


End file.
